Over a grave
by Maartje
Summary: Cassie meets a stranger over her mother's grave...
1. A meeting over a grave

Over a grave  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own anyone or anything that has appeared on the TV show Pacific Blue. I'm getting soooo good at disclaiming :)  
  
AN: *points to Australia* It's all her fault! Chiquinta beta'ed! No just kidding, well she did actually beta this, for wich I love and adore her and she'll have my eternal gratitude, yours too if you knew how this thing look like before she pulled out ye olde big red pen. And just to complete this insane rant, I just want to add I love and adore her writing also. OK, done with the sucking up, on with the story!  
  
Over a grave  
  
Cassie slowly climbed up the grassy slopes of the burial grounds wondering why her mother had to be buried so high up. Expecting to be the only person there she didn't look up until she heard someone softly talking. A pretty blond woman sat on her knees before her mothers grave, telling her something that seemed to be very important. She turned away, figuring she could always visit her mother another day.  
  
"You are her daughter right?" a voice, she assumed from the same woman asked from behind her. So she turned and nodded.  
  
"Yeah" she shrugged.  
  
"Then I should be the one leaving." The woman smiled, and wiped away the last remaining tears.  
  
"No really, I come here all the time. Did you know her? My mom I mean?" she asked, longing to learn more about her virtually unknown mother.  
  
"Yes I did, for a while she was my best friend." The woman answered.  
  
"I didn't. She sacrificed herself so I could be born." Cassie told her, slowly walking back.  
  
"You feel guilty?" the woman asked. Cassie shrugged  
  
"A little I guess, I mean if it wasn't for me she would still have been alive." The woman flared up  
  
"Well don't, because it wasn't your choice, it was hers, she made it and I doubt she regretted it, maybe only not seeing you grow up, but she left you in the care of a wonderful man. Don't diminish her sacrifice by feeling guilty for it. It wasn't your choice, it was hers." Then the woman seemed to realize the tone of voice she had used.  
  
"Sorry, I shouldn't have said it that way." she apologized.  
  
"It's OK." Cassie quickly said "Could you tell me about her?" she asked. The woman nodded and padded the grass beside her.  
  
"What has your dad told you?" she asked.  
  
"Oh he's told me what he knows, but they were just friends and I don't mind hearing things twice or anything."  
  
"Alright then. Let me tell you about the first time I met this mother of yours."  
  
They talked for hours, laughing and crying, until Cassie realized what time it was.  
  
"Oh man! I didn't realize what time it was, I need to go home my dad will freak!" she exclaimed.  
  
"It's only six." the woman said.  
  
"Yeah, but I promised to be home at five thirty. I am supposed to be grounded."  
  
"Well I need to go as well; I have two of about your size at home who need feeding. I can give you a lift if you want."  
  
Cassie was suddenly unsure of what to say, on one hand she had only met this woman this afternoon and she could be a serial killer or something, but on the other hand, she had known her mother and she really needed to get home.  
  
"Yeah, that would be great." She said after a moment's hesitation.  
  
"Alright, come on then, we're lucky it's downhill this time."  
  
===============  
  
TC heard a car door slam shut in front of the house and looked at the clock. A quarter past six, she was in trouble.  
  
It took only seconds before Cassie came running into the kitchen.  
  
"I'm so sorry I'm late, I was just visiting mom and forgot the time. It'll never happen again." Cassie started explaining.  
  
"And your mother decided to drive you home?" he asked sweetly, so telling her she was in real trouble if he thought she was lying.  
  
"No, I met someone there, someone else was visiting her grave. She told me a million things about mom, then she drove me home."  
  
"Who is 'she' exactly?" TC asked, trying to catch Cassie in her own lies.  
  
"Uhm. come to think of it, I never asked her name. She was pretty, blond, she said she was mom's best friend for a while, she used to be a cop too, she had the best stories. Please daddy, you have got to believe me." Cassie pleaded.  
  
"Are you telling me you met Chris?" he asked, feeling like his world had just turned upside down, he hadn't heard from Chris since that fateful day.  
  
"I don't know what her name was."  
  
"Come on." TC said and walked directly to the photo-albums, he showed her a group picture.  
  
"Is the woman you met on this picture?" he asked, he had made sure it was on from after the rookies had joined, then Chris wasn't the only blond woman anymore.  
  
"Yes, I think it was her." Cassie pointed and it indeed was Chris.  
  
"You liked her?" he asked her daughter.  
  
"Yeah, she was OK, we only talked about mom though. She also told me about some of the stunts you and Victor pulled though." Cassie chuckled at the memory and her father's embarrassed look.  
  
"Why haven't the two of you stayed in touch?" Cassie asked.  
  
"Long story." TC said, then remembered he was supposed to be mad at her and she was supposed to be grounded. But he couldn't hold this against her, he had always encouraged her to ask as much about her mother as she could, how could he punish her for it now?  
  
"We've got time."  
  
"We'll have time some other time, now I have to make dinner."  
  
"You can talk and cook."  
  
"Don't you have homework to finish?"  
  
"No."  
  
"How is Chris anyway? How is she doing I mean?" he asked, changing the subject. She didn't mind dropping it for the moment though. That way she could surprise him with it a little later.  
  
"She seemed healthy, she did have some pretty grave business to discuss with mom though. She was crying when I got there, but I guess that's just what people do there. She mentioned having two kids, but she didn't have a wedding ring. I don't know much else, she didn't tell me a lot about herself, I mean I didn't even know her name."  
  
"Did she happen to mention if she was ever coming back?" he asked, trying not to be too obvious but miserably failed.  
  
"I invited her in but she said she'd better not. You two were a couple weren't you?"  
  
"We were married." TC admitted, not able to lie to his daughter.  
  
"What? Really? Wow, I never knew you had been married. I mean, I knew you and mom were just friends but. Eeeew, if you were married to Chris, and mom and Chris were best friends." Cassie looked up to her father for an explanation.  
  
"Chris had already left me by then." he said, his feelings of guilt written all over his face.  
  
"You weren't divorced yet." Cassie concluded.  
  
"No, and Cory and me. we were beating ourselves up about it, I never blamed her though. It was my fault I shouldn't have let it happen."  
  
"Then you wouldn't have had me." Cassie stated. It drew a smile to her fathers face.  
  
"And I wouldn't want to miss you for the world. I guess everything happens for a reason doesn't it?" he asked her.  
  
"I guess." Cassie shrugged, then continued. "Sometimes, when I visit mom there laid some daisies at her grave, today I saw Chris laid daisies on her grave. I think she goes there more often."  
  
"Thank you honey, but I think it's a little too late now. Dinner however is precisely on time, so if I were you I'd set the table."  
  
=======================  
  
"You're late" Sam said as she saw her mother enter through the back door.  
  
"I brought pizza." Chris answered.  
  
"You're forgiven."  
  
"Would you set the table please?"  
  
"For pizza?"  
  
"I am not getting tomato stains on my couch _again_."  
  
"Right." The girl went to the cupboard and got three plates, then walked a couple more steps to the base of the stairs.  
  
"TOM! FOOD!" She yelled, then casually walked back to the kitchen.  
  
"BE THERE IN A SEC" Tom yelled equally loud.  
  
"NOW!" Chris yelled, not bothering to go to the stairs.  
  
"ONE MOMENT!"  
  
"I WILL EAT YOUR PIZZA!" Sam threatened, two seconds later with a lot more noise then was absolutely necessary Tom came running down the stairs.  
  
"You wouldn't dare." He said.  
  
"Try me." The girl giggled.  
  
"Kids, settle down will you? I'm trying to eat here." Chris said.  
  
The kids smirked and identical smirk, then rushed over to the half set table to get their share of the food.  
  
"So, why were you late anyway?" Sam asked, with her mouth full.  
  
"Just visiting an old friend." Chris shrugged, and then chided her daughter for talking with her mouth full.  
  
"Had a good time?" Tom asked, stealing a piece of salami off of his sister's pizza, who whacked him as soon as she noticed.  
  
"I did actually, I met her daughter, poor girl had to grow up without a mother."  
  
"So your friend is dead?" Sam asked, a bit taken aback.  
  
"Yeah, but it was really sad how that girl just lighted up from hearing just a few stories from a complete stranger about her mother. She was nice though and it brought back some good memories." Chris shrugged.  
  
"Sam, about that, shouldn't we be out looking for a father or something? I mean, isn't that the normal thing to do?" Tom asked.  
  
"Uhm, I thought we were her niece's kids, and that the niece died along with her husband when we were very young." Sam said  
  
"No that was last time, this time you are my adoptive kiddo's." Chris filled them in.  
  
"Oh right, then we should be looking for our birth parents shouldn't we?" Tom asked.  
  
"Why?" Chris asked, it would mean she would have to make up files again and get those into the system without anyone noticing and doing that once a year was enough for her.  
  
"Well, don't adopted kids normally do that?" Tom asked.  
  
"Well, let's just say you won't cause it would take a lot of time for me to plant things you can 'find'." Chris closed the matter.  
  
"Right mum, then it's just going to stay you and us." Sam said, quite happy about not having to go on a fake search.  
  
"Yippy, now don't forget to drink that orange juice, it's healthy."  
  
"Orange juice is supposed to go with breakfast." Tom commented "Not with pizza."  
  
"Well, if you two lazy bones weren't always late in the morning you might have the juice then, but as it is now, you will drink it."  
  
"I don't even like orange juice."  
  
"Drink it."  
  
=====  
  
The girl twisted and turned on her bed, entangling herself with the sheets, uttering soft pleading sounds. It didn't take long before she shot up, awake, panting. Then let herself fall back onto the bed. She hesitated for a moment, then got out of her bed completely and walked over to her mother's room.  
  
Seeing her mother asleep she almost turned back, but then pressed on and lay into the bed with the other woman. Just for the sense of security, she had always done this when she had gotten the nightmares when she was a little kid, and her mother would hug her and protect her and then the nightmares would stay away.  
  
"Hey honey." Chris groggily said when she noticed someone stepping into bed with her. "Did you have another nightmare?" she asked, softly caressing the girl's hair.  
  
"Yes. I was the closet again." Sam stammered. Chris took her daughter in a protective hug.  
  
"I know sweetheart, but I will protect you now, you know that right? I will never let anything bad happen to you."  
  
"I know mom." Sam whispered back.  
  
==  
  
When Tom saw the dark circles around his sister's eyes he knew almost immediately she had had another of the nightmares. A look at their mother confirmed it, though it was more then eleven years ago Sam was still dreaming about what she had seen as a little girl.  
  
Samantha saw her twin staring at her worriedly so smiled at him, letting him know she really was alright.  
  
"Come on, we've got to go or we'll miss the bus. Bye mom." Sam kissed her mothers cheek then grabbed her bag and rushed out of the door, closely followed by her brother, who was only called back to give his mother a kiss as well. 


	2. Vacation

AN: This again is beta'ed by Chiquinta, for which I really am grateful. Now, I have a HUGE favour to ask of you, the reader, please tell me exactly what you did and didn't like about this chapter. That way I know what to avoid and what not to leave out on the next. Thanks :) Now on with the story!  
  
== THREE MONTHS LATER ==  
  
Sam and Thomas sat in the back of the car blaring along with some old classics, falsely I might add. Chris just ignored it, at least the twins were having fun. It had taken her a whole lot of talking before she had finally managed to get it into their thick little brains that she wouldn't allow them to go on vacation without her. But now they seemed to have settled into going with their mother. She checked the map that lay spread out over the passenger seat and then turned into a parking lot.  
  
"We're here." She stated, then turned off the engine.  
  
"Wow." Sam sighed happily.  
  
"Come on, let's get ourselves checked in, then we can check out that marvellous pool the brochure promised."  
  
==  
  
Cassie was happily sunbathing, enjoying her vacation to the fullest; her father was in the pool swimming laps. They had been in this hotel for about a week now. Today or tomorrow her father's girlfriend Michelle, would join them and then they all would stay yet another two weeks. She liked it just fine. Room-service was heaven, and though she didn't really like Michelle she figured that as long she made her dad happy it really was none of her business. And of course she would get her own room, not that she minded sharing with her dad but there just was something about having your own hotel room.  
  
Two youths ran by her chair and jumped into the water, splattering about making her just as wet as they were.  
  
"Hey! Look what you're doing!" she exclaimed, a little pissed. Until she saw the extreme cutie that was one of the perpetrators.  
  
"Oh sorry, we didn't see you." He flashed a knee weakening smile.  
  
"Why don't you come into the water and retaliate?" the girl asked, she looked a lot like the boy so she guessed they must be siblings. She looked at her already perfect tan, then to the cutie and his sister.  
  
"Sure, but it better not be two against one."  
  
"Us against Sam." The boy suggested, Cassie nodded her acceptance and jumped in the water with as big a splash as she could form.  
  
=Meanwhile=  
  
TC had been swimming laps for only a couple of minutes when he saw a female form next to him swimming the same laps. His male pride kicked in and he accelerated swimming away faster, but she seemed to have some of that pride as well, she accelerated until she passed him. It turned into an all out competition, eventually they couldn't accelerate any further and it became about endurance. Between breathing and swimming he had little time left but what time he had he tried to get a better look at his competition. The woman was slender, blond, her bathing suit was skyblue, but that was all he could see through the water at this speed. Eventually a couple of kids got in her way and she had to stop. He stopped as well; he didn't want to win unfair. She looked at him, her hair slicked back and her eyes a little red from the pool water. He looked back, time stopped, silent thunder roared and other sentimental crap like that. Sixteen years stood between them but both knew exactly who they were staring at.  
  
Someone screamed, a girl sliding from the water glide, but for a moment he looked away, when he looked back she was gone and he honestly didn't know whether he just dreamed the encounter or if it really had happened.  
  
==  
  
Chris had managed to avoid TC for a couple of days now, but still wasn't sure if she really wanted to avoid him. She had already seen Cassie. The girl had made fast friends with her twins. But she didn't see the harm in it, even if the girl obviously had a thing for Tom. The boy was oblivious. He really never knew when a girl was falling at his feet. Chris smiled, yet something else she had done right.  
  
"Mom." The object of her thoughts entered the room, dressed to go out. "Sam, Cassie and me are going out tonight, don't wait up OK? And don't worry." He said sweetly while trying to get collar of his shirt right.  
  
"Come here." She said and started straightening his collar for him.  
  
"Where are you going exactly?" she asked.  
  
"Mom, come on." Tom said, finding his mothers worry a little over the top.  
  
"Tom, tell me, where are you going?"  
  
"Just to the beach, there is this big party there tonight." He gave in.  
  
"Which part of the beach?" she asked, not giving in at all.  
  
"You know, just for one night we can look after ourselves." He said, pleading for some freedom.  
  
"I know sweetie, under normal circumstances you could, but I would seriously hate myself if anything happened to the two of you. So what part? I promise I will do nothing embarrassing, I will just watch, you probably won't even know I am there."  
  
"We'll be right in front of the hotel." He said with a sigh.  
  
She hugged him "I'm sorry sweetie." She said.  
  
"I know. Now I just have to go hurry the girls, they found it necessary to dress up together." His smile had already returned.  
  
As if on cue the two came out of the bathroom dressed and everything. Chris knew she really shouldn't be shocked about the quite skimpy outfits, she had worn skimpier in her day, but these were just kids, in her eyes anyway.  
  
"You look great." She just said, biting her tongue.  
  
Cassie looked a bit uncomfortable, it could be the dress that Sam had lent her, Chris had no doubt that TC would forbid such wardrobe choice, or could it be Chris's presence, Cassie never was very comfortable around her.  
  
"Thanks mom." Sam laughed and kissed Chris's cheek.  
  
"Yeah yeah, no need to get all mushy on me." She said and shooed them out of the room, then she quickly ran back to change into something suitable to stand and watch in all night. Then she followed her kids, as inconspicuously as possible.  
  
She sat down on a highpoint where she could clearly see the beach beneath her, she was close enough to see Sam and Tom and casual enough not to look like a stalker or something.  
  
She phoned Sam to let her know her position, in case anything went wrong the girl would know where to signal and/or scream to and of course she would fill Tom in.  
  
Chris made herself comfortable, she would most likely be there all night, so she took out the thermos flask and filled herself a nice cup of coffee, when she found half a roll of cookies in her bag as well, everything was just perfect.  
  
===  
  
TC looked out the window, Cassie hardly ever went out. She was more the stay at home type, and now those two youths had totally turned her around. He admittedly was worried, and maybe a little bit jealous.  
  
"You're worrying again." Michelle said, she had just arrived this afternoon. After taking another sip she put her wineglass down, walked over to him and started a backrub.  
  
He sighed "That feels nice." He admitted.  
  
"I know something that would feel nicer." She huskily whispered in his ear.  
  
"I think I'll just go out, keep an eye at Cassie, she doesn't know what to look out for at all and I don't really trust that boy she seems to like so much." He said, totally ignoring her come-on.  
  
"TC, don't be silly, she's a big girl, she could use some freedom." Michelle said, again he didn't listen.  
  
"If tonight everything goes well I might not do it again, but she's just so young and I need to make sure she'll be alright" he said, and as that completed the discussion he grabbed his jacket.  
  
"Well, at least let me come with you, I really don't want to spend my first night here alone." Michelle said, and grabbed her own jacket as well.  
  
"Look, it'll be very boring, but I don't want any distractions, so I'll just go alone, OK?" he said. He had been a lieutenant for so long that he had become accustomed to people obeying his orders.  
  
"No! What am I supposed to do then?" Michelle said, about to throw a hissy- fit.  
  
"Read a book?" he said, then bolted out the door, closing it behind him, he knew she wouldn't follow, she wasn't that stupid. ===  
  
He looked around for the best spot to overlook the festivities, somewhere quiet where he would have a good look at Cassie no matter where she went, but where he wouldn't be noticed very easily, he didn't want to embarrass his little girl after all.  
  
He spotted the perfect place soon enough, having some experience with stake- outs, but when he got there he noticed someone else was already here. Though his first instinct was to turn away before she noticed him and run. He decided to go for the confrontation.  
  
He sat down next to her.  
  
"Hey." He just said. She looked at him, she didn't seem at all shocked or surprised.  
  
"Hi." She answered him. Both eyes went back to the beach for a moment, but then Chris spoke again.  
  
"You know for a second there I thought you were going to turn back."  
  
"For a second there I was going to turn back." He answered.  
  
"I'm glad you didn't." she said truthfully, making him curious as to the reason.  
  
"You did, in the pool." He said, not accusing her, just stating a fact.  
  
"I know." She said, a little smile forming on her lips.  
  
"I always thought that with our kids I'd be the protective one and you would want them to have their freedom." He said, changing the subject.  
  
"Me too, and yet here we are." Chris smile grew a little, as did TC's.  
  
"Cassie said you had a couple of kids, who are they?" he asked.  
  
"I have two, but I think you've met them already. You see the boy that's dancing with Cassie? That's my son Tom."  
  
The black haired, brown eyed, tan skinned boy was hers?  
  
"So Sam's yours too?" he asked, still processing the information.  
  
"Yup."  
  
"They must take after their father." He said, trying to be diplomatic.  
  
"No, from what I heard they take after their mother, especially Tom, he's got her eyes; you know the kind that can make Bambi jealous."  
  
"So, they're adopted?" Chris had adopted two children? Why? How? When?  
  
"Sort of." Though she would do anything to protect her babies, she couldn't lie to TC about them. She should just tell him they were adopted but she couldn't.  
  
"Then, if they were not adopted, a family member of yours? But wouldn't they go to your folks then?" he asked, really puzzled.  
  
She sighed "Don't tell this to anyone, I shouldn't even be telling you this but... Just don't tell anyone what I am going to tell you, not even Cassie."  
  
He frowned, this was really important to her, so he nodded and when she still didn't say anything verbalised his promise.  
  
"OK, I promise, I won't tell anyone."  
  
"They're in the witness protection program. When Sam was just a little girl she saw her uncle murder her parents, she testified and her uncle was put away, but now she has the rest of her elaborate family after her, seeking her's and Tom's deaths. I was an FBI agent at the time, called in to assist with the case. It ended up with me being their baby-sitter and when the time came they needed a guardian I was approached and I took the job." She shrugged. It seemed unreal somehow to explain their whole history in just a couple of short sentences.  
  
"Wow." TC sighed, then his eye was caught by his own daughter still dancing with the wanted boy.  
  
"Is it safe for Cassie to be seen with them?" he asked, already jumping up.  
  
"Yes, they have had friends before and none of them ever got hurt, they usually pick a time where Tom and Sam are alone, or just with their bodyguards." Chris said.  
  
He sat down again, though still worried out of his mind.  
  
"It must be hard on them." He said, somehow apologetic.  
  
"Yeah, sometimes, I mean. Normal parents would keep their children away from guns, I taught them how to use one, when Sam wanted to go on ballet I put her on karate. Their baby-sitter, that they still have while being 16 years old I might add, is a ten foot tall, African-American by the name of Bubba. No offence to Bubba, he rules, but it just isn't normal you know? That and the fact that their lives are always in danger, that they survived several attempts at their lives, and even more that they don't even know about. It's no way for a kid to live."  
  
"And yet they seem pretty happy." TC assured her.  
  
"Yeah, but they have pretty big issues that'll resurface when they least expect or want it." Chris said, and then held up her thermos to him, her face carrying the question.  
  
"Its coffee?" he asked, she nodded, then he nodded in response. She poured him the extra cup she had dug up from her bag.  
  
"Thanks. But you know, I really think those kids are going to turn out good, they have you for a mother." He smiled at her, the smile he only seemed to smile when she was around, the same smile that made her happy she was sitting down or her knees would have buckled.  
  
"Just, really do not tell this to anyone, I mean it, those two are the most important thing in my whole life." She said earnestly.  
  
"I won't. Want to pinky swear?" he asked, making her smile.  
  
"Yeah, I want to pinky swear!"  
  
====  
  
Michelle turned away from the couple on the dune, she had heard enough. Of course, mister 'I-can't-be-with-you-because-I-need-to-stalk-my-kid-without- any-company' was meeting someone behind her back. That woman, a mother, well sort off anyway, of course they could talk all about all the experiences they share. Fill each other in on how to stalk your kid without them knowing it even better.  
  
Michelle was bitter, but she would not give her man up that easily, so quickly and quietly returned to their room. He was hers, and he would stay that way.  
  
====  
  
Tom and Cassie were having a great time, Sam however was having a slightly less one. The only type of men around here seemed to be the sleazy kind, and she was to smart to fall for their cliché come-on's. Of course she couldn't turn to Tom or Cassie; they were talking right now, sitting closely to the ocean. She rolled her eyes, then decided to return to her mother, she couldn't leave without her, and Chris couldn't leave without both her children, not now they were without back-up anyway. The thought scared her a little, but she pulled her chin up, no thinking about no murders tonight.  
  
She was very surprised when she noticed her mother talking to Cassie's dad, what would he be doing here? And with her mother? Sam sighed, looking back at Tom and Cassie, not both of them right? That would just be disgusting! She pushed on however, figuring her mom would be slightly more considerate, meaning no making out in front of her, then her brother and friend were.  
  
"Hey mom, Mr. Callaway." She politely said. When she had walked up to them.  
  
"Hey sweetie, not having a good time?" Chris asked.  
  
"Not really, the guys down there are sleazy and Tom and Cassie are no fun tonight." She said and let herself drop next to her mother.  
  
Only now TC spoke up.  
  
"You can call me TC you know." He said, trying to start up a conversation.  
  
"OK, I will, thanks." Sam said, pleasantly, trying to befriend her mother's new friend. But wait, suddenly she remembered something.  
  
"I don't mean to pry or anything, but Cassie said your girlfriend was coming today, where is she?" Sam asked, she noticed her mothers face fall a little before pulling herself out of it and putting on her happy face again, she was pretty sure TC wouldn't have noticed.  
  
"Yes she is actually, but I didn't know if Cassie was going to be alright down here so I just came here to see." He answered truthfully, his heart sinking a little thinking of Michelle while sitting here next to who he once considered the love of his life. What he and Michelle had was nothing compared to what they once had.  
  
"You're checking up on her?" Sam asked, a little exasperated.  
  
"She doesn't go out much, I just don't want her to get hurt. I don't intend to make this a habit or anything." He answered again.  
  
"If you want to go back to your girlfriend I can keep an eye out for Cassie, she and Tom will leave at the same time anyway." Chris offered, wanting to at least stay friends with this man.  
  
"I don't know." TC said, hesitating.  
  
"Oh come on, it's not like she'll let them go back to Cassie's room together or anything!" Sam said, feeling more insulted then Chris did.  
  
"Yeah I know, but this is my baby-girl." He still hesitated, then looked over at Chris, their eyes met and he realized he trusted this woman, even with his kid.  
  
"Alright, thank you for the offer." He said, then gave her back the cup and stood up.  
  
"That's alright, bye." Chris said, giving him her version of the smile. He thanked his lucky stars he didn't stumble.  
  
"See you around?" he asked, hope evident in his voice.  
  
"Yeah, and this time I won't duck out." Chris said, grinning slightly.  
  
"I'll hold you to that, bye, and bye Sam." He finally said, and started away.  
  
"Nice man." Sam commented, one of her eyebrows raised slightly. Chris laughed and shoved her daughter.  
  
"Nice man with a girlfriend it seems." She said.  
  
"Well, you had a spark going and Cassie tells me she isn't all happy with Michelle, she is years and years younger then he is, like in her early thirties or something. She thinks it pretty sick, but figures as long as her dad is happy it's OK. But the point here is, that in my opinion you and he would be a better couple." Sam informed her mother.  
  
"Right, well honey, I don't think I will be much competition against a thirty year old, besides, people can just be friends you know." She said, putting her arm around her daughter.  
  
"Well, you seem like you could be more then that." Sam continued.  
  
"Sweetie, we couldn't even if we wanted to, I am not looking for a fling and long term just isn't possible right now, you know as well as I do that this identity won't survive the summer."  
  
It was true, Sam did know, every summer they would move away leaving their identities behind, than stay the school-year in one place and move again in the summer. It was pretty annoying at times, but necessary to ensure their safety.  
  
"I'm sorry mom, for making your life such a mess." Sam said, suddenly turning more sombre.  
  
Chris immediately hugged her daughter.  
  
"You made my life beautiful sweetie, you and your brother. I consider myself blessed to be called your mother." She said, ensuring the insecure girl, Sam chuckled.  
  
"You made us do that! I remember being so mad at you for making us call you mom." Sam said "But now you really are mom, funny how that grows on you."  
  
"Yeah, I remember that, you made such a fuss, I didn't know what to do!" Chris said, smiling as well.  
  
"You tried to give me a lolly-pop! I was totally being a brat and you were near panic and all you could think of was giving me a lolly-pop!" Sam said, teasing her mother.  
  
"Oh quit it! I had never been a mother before, never even had a niece or nephew to practice with and bam, there you two are, two traumatized children that I am ordered to traumatize some more." Chris rolled her eyes.  
  
"Yeah, but I also remember thinking being happy it was you, because you really were there for us during the whole trial thing." Sam told.  
  
"Well, I was scared to death. But what could I do being the overall good person that I am, turning down two angel faces." She shook her head.  
  
"Well, for an overall good person you did a very good job, I must say I turned out perfect." Sam said, giggling.  
  
"Yeah you would!" Chris said, laughing as well.  
  
"Look at those two going! You think we should interfere?" Sam asked, sobering a bit upon seeing her brother make out with Cassie.  
  
"We can let them have a summer long fling, don't you think?" Chris asked.  
  
"Oh that wasn't what I was worried about. I meant her father, if he was still here I think he would've gone for his gun already." Sam shrugged, having already found out about TC's protective nature from hanging out with Cassie.  
  
"Well he isn't here, let the girl have some fun for once." She acts like a thirteen year old in stead of a sixteen year old." Chris commented.  
  
"She just feels a little insecure." Sam stood up for the girl.  
  
"Well, she ain't insecure now." Chris shook her head when she saw the girl's hand sneak under Tom's shirt. "I'd better stop it right now or I'll have TC throwing a hissy-fit at my doorstep tomorrow." With that she stood up and swatted off the sand that had decided her butt was a good place to be at the moment.  
  
Sam held out her hand, and with a groan Chris took it and helped the girl up. Arm in arm they walked down onto the beach.  
  
"No, it's way to early mom!" Was the first thing that came out of Tom's mouth when Chris gently tapped him on the shoulder. He sounded like a toddler that didn't want to go to bed yet.  
  
"Whine in the morning, now you are coming. You too Cassie, I promised your father I would keep an eye on you." Chris said. Only then she realized TC might not have exactly told his daughter.  
  
"Dad told you that? When? And more importantly, why?" Cassie stood upstraight in the blink of an eye demanding answers. At least the rebellious teenage side of her was showing a bit better.  
  
"Never mind that, just come on, I plan to get some sleep this. morning." Chris told the pissed off girl, not that it would help, but she could try.  
  
"So you were actually watching us down here?" Cassie asked exasperated.  
  
"Long story. Now are you coming?" Chris gave her one of her more serious looks. But in all honesty it was more Tom's obvious intent to go with his mother then anything else.  
  
"I still think it's pretty sick." Cassie muttered. Then started after them.  
  
===  
  
OK, OK, I'll make my chapters shorter, this one was like 9 pages. Please review, tell me exactly what you did and didn't like, don't be afraid to be rude or offensive, I have three brothers, I'm used to it :P 


	3. some things you just don't want to see

AN: Barely four pages, I'm making progress! Thanks heaps to Chiquinta. She rocks, but yall already knew that didn't ya?  
  
~  
  
Chris ushered her children in the room then followed them. They had left Cassie at her own doorsteps several minutes ago. Chris thanked heaven she had been smart enough to take a three person room with two bathrooms. She and Sam both quickly ran into one so that Tom just had to wait until they were finished.  
  
In a room not far from there things were less quiet however. Cassie walked in to find Michelle sitting on the bed in a silk nightshirt, leaving just about al of her legs bare. Cassie suppressed the urge to roll her eyes.  
  
"Where's dad?" she just asked.  
  
"Here." TC said, coming out of the bathroom, wearing a bathrobe.  
  
"Why the hell were you spying on me?" Cassie shrieked. She had never been really angry with her father before but this she just could not handle.  
  
"I wasn't, I was just making sure you were alright. And with that _thing_ you are wearing I guess I should be happy I did!" TC said, shocked by his daughter's sudden attitude.  
  
"My outfit? What about hers?" Cassie pointed to Michelle "You don't have a problem with her dressing up as a hooker!" She said, going immediately for the low blows.  
  
"Well, you are my daughter! You're only a child!" then like an after thought he added "And Michelle doesn't dress like a hooker."  
  
"I am not a child anymore dad! I am sixteen, and I have a boyfriend. Just let me have some privacy for godssake!"  
  
"You are too young, if you were older you would know a boyfriend isn't just someone you met a couple if days ago, it's someone you share something special with."  
  
"And I don't have that with Tom?" She asked, mad that her father pretended to know everything concerning love.  
  
"No. I don't want you anywhere near that boy ever again." He threatened, it wasn't that he didn't like the kid, it was the threat he carried with him. A double threat, he could take away TC's little girl, turning her into the woman she was too young to become and on top of that he could get her killed.  
  
"You can't control that daddy." She said, suddenly calm.  
  
"You won't see him after we leave this hotel anyway. What is to keep me from checking out right now?"  
  
"No daddy, don't! I really really like him OK?" she said seemingly giving in, but in her head the radars were working overtime. Of course they would meet after this vacation, Chris visited Cory's grave, and indicated that it couldn't be more then an hours drive back to her place. They would see each other plenty. But for now, cooling her father off was more important. You catch more flies with honey.  
  
"I know baby, but he'll only break your heart." Or get you killed.  
  
"No he won't." she said with what she thought was enough conviction to make her father see reason.  
  
"Look Cass, it's not that I don't trust your judgement it's that this particular boy is bad news. Take a boyfriend when we get home, take two! But not him, not here, alright?" Take a boyfriend? What world is he living in anyway?  
  
"I like Tom, daddy, I really really like Tom, he's not like other boys." She could hardly believe she was having this conversation with her father, it just wasn't any of his business who she was dating!  
  
"No Cassie. You will not see this boy!" He tried to finish the conversation but Cassie wouldn't let him.  
  
"WHY NOT?!? You seem to like his mother well enough! Do you honestly think she would raise an awful kid? Once upon a time you married her, you thought her children would be your children. Is that it daddy? You're bothered by the fact that Tom is Chris's?"  
  
"That is part of it. Look Cass, it's late, we're both tired, let's just pick this up tomorrow, when we have both calmed down." She knew what this was, tomorrow he would refuse to talk about it, burying the subject. The man was as stubborn as an ass.  
  
"I will keep seeing Tom dad, and there is nothing you can do about it." She said, a little yet proud smile playing around her lips.  
  
"No you will not." He said, his tone turning threatening.  
  
"Yes, I will."  
  
"You will not Cassandra!" He thundered. He never used that tone of voice with her, he was never this mad at her. Suddenly, to her own annoyance tears started stinging in her eyes. She quickly turned and left the room, slamming the door as hard as she could.  
  
First she went into her own room where she cried for a bit, feeling immensely sorry for herself and hating her stubborn stupid father. When she was done she fixed herself up a bit, an idea had sprung to her mind.  
  
~  
  
Sam and Chris were already asleep in the king-sized bed, Tom however couldn't get to sleep. He kept tossing and turning, thinking about Cassie. On the one hand he liked her and it would be nice to date her and everything, yeah there was a time limit of about two weeks but wasn't it better to have loved and lost then to have never loved at all? But on the other hand, what if he couldn't say goodbye to her? He would endanger himself, Sam, mom, and most of all her! Basically everyone he cared for. Maybe he should just call it off right now, it was obvious she wasn't looking for a summer fling, she had actually told him that word for word back on the beach. And he just couldn't give her more.  
  
A quiet knock on the door pulled him out of his thoughts. He noticed Chris and Sam hadn't moved so took it upon himself to open.  
  
A quite bedraggled looking Cassie stood in front of him. Her eyes and face red, her lower lip still slightly trembling.  
  
"Cass, are you alright?" He asked, concerned.  
  
"Can I talk to you?" She asked, in stead of answering his question.  
  
Tom looked back into his room; there was no way they could talk there without someone waking up.  
  
"We can go to my room." Cassie suggested. Tom wondered if she had any idea of what she was insinuating.  
  
"My mom will kill me if she finds out I snuck out." he explained. Cassie didn't ridicule him for it, she just smiled.  
  
"Just for a little while, she won't even notice you have gone." Cassie pleaded. She really did look like she needed someone to talk to and he really did want her to like him.  
  
"Alright." He smiled and flashed that dazzling smile of his.  
  
~  
  
Chris woke up at six. She was used to it and hadn't been able to break of that habit in the short while she had actually had vacation. Sam lay peacefully on the other side of the bed, no nightmares for her tonight. She also checked on Tom out of habit. When she noticed him not there she practically jumped out of her skin and ran to check the bathrooms. Both were empty. She grabbed the phone and called his cell-phone. It started ringing on his nightstand. Chris cursed and started looking through the room. He hadn't left a note, but there weren't any signs of breaking and entering or a struggle either.  
  
Meanwhile Sam had woken up from all the bustle her mother caused.  
  
"Mom? What's up? Where's Tom?" She asked, her eyes barely open.  
  
"He's not here, that's what's up." Chris answered, worry and anger clearly evident in her voice. Sam cursed.  
  
"Did you try his cell?"  
  
Chris held it up for her to see. Sam cursed again.  
  
"Have you checked Cassie? Maybe he's there, or she knows something." Sam suggested.  
  
"If he is there I will personally castrate him with the bluntest knife I can find." Chris said, worried out of her mind.  
  
~  
  
Tom woke up feeling two brown eyes watching him intently. He realized he must've fallen asleep somewhere last night because the sun was already filtering through the curtains.  
  
"Good morning." Cassie softly said. The before another thought could enter his mind she leaned forward and gently kissed him. Hormones took over from brain as he responded.  
  
~  
  
Both Sam and Chris were muttering curses as they walked to Cassie's room in their PJ's. At that moment no one would've doubted they were mother and daughter despite their dissimilar appearances. Chris didn't even bother knocking when she found the door wasn't locked.  
  
There she saw something no mother wants to see her kid do.  
  
"Tom!!!" She yelled, shocked, mad, angry and generally furious.  
  
The boy and girl on the bed quickly pulled up the sheets over them and faced the door, wide eyed and scared.  
  
"Pull on some clothes and come with me boy. Do you have any idea how worried I was? And you Cassie? I would've expected something better from you. Your father will hear of this."  
  
"Hear of what?" TC, awoken and alarmed by all the screaming coming from his daughter's room had rushed over. Just in time to see Tom step out of the bed. TC cursed and ran for him, obviously intending to kick the boy's ass. Chris jumped between them.  
  
"TC calm down!" she urged, having to physically push him back. "Sam take Tom to our room, if he even thinks about leaving kick him, hard." She ordered. Tom, looking a bit panicked dashed past TC, looked one more time at Cassie and then walked along with Sam. Michelle, standing in the doorway, stepped aside to let him pass, then turned back to watch what was going to be a very heated argument.  
  
~  
  
Note: Next up argument. What do you think, should I give Michelle a bigger (and meaner) part, give Cassie something else to bitch about? Or should I up the UST between Chris and TC during that very heated argument *wiggles eyebrows* 


	4. A little bit of arguing

AN: Late and short, somehow that doesn't sound like me, but yet here it is :D  
  
~  
  
Chris stepped back from TC now that her son was out of immediate danger.  
  
"You okay?" she asked, a little worried.  
  
"No I'm not OK! You're son just tried to. . . Tried to. . . Deflower my baby!" He was out of control, pacing around and his voice just going everywhere.  
  
"Oh come on TC! They're teenagers! That's what they do. If it makes you feel any better I will kick his ass once I'm back but you have to face that it wasn't just Tom doing the deflowering!"  
  
"He sneaked into my daughter's room and you have the nerve to defend him?!?"  
  
"No! First of all, I don't believe Tom sneaked anywhere and secondly, if you are the responsible parent you claim to be, why the hell did you give her, her own hotel room? That's just asking for trouble!" Chris looked at Michelle "But I guess some things are just a little more important to you then your kid." She remarked and immediately regretted it. His personal life was none of her business anymore.  
  
Meanwhile Cassie, who still sat naked in the bed wrapped a sheet around herself and tried to tiptoe to her bathroom so she could get dressed. Before she got there however, she felt the need to set them straight.  
  
"Don't talk to my dad like that!" she yelled at Chris. "And daddy, don't blame Tom. I'm not a baby anymore!" She yelled, just as loud as Chris had done just moments earlier.  
  
"Cass honey, I think it may be best if." Michelle tried. But was met only by three furious gazes and a:  
  
"Stay out of this" from TC.  
  
A snort and "Did anyone even ask you anything?" from Cassie.  
  
And, my personal favourite "Gasp, it talks" from Chris.  
  
Then TC turned back to Cassie.  
  
"Listen to me young lady, as long as you live under my roof you will have to abide by my rules! And those include no sex until you're 18 at least!"  
  
"Oh smart move TC, alienate your own daughter." Chris commented, her arms were crossed and she was staring furiously at him.  
  
"Hey, I'm not your dog! I'm not going to shut up just because you say so!" Michelle interjected. Surprisingly enough Cassie and Chris teamed up against her.  
  
"Then stop rubbing up everyone who whistles!" Cassie growled.  
  
"Listen little missy, you want a say in stuff like this? Get yourself a kid. For now, you have absolutely nothing to do with this situation." Chris said.  
  
Before Michelle could answer, or before TC could come to her rescue, Chris was back to glaring at him.  
  
"Just keep your son away from my daughter!"  
  
"Try as I may, I simply cannot watch him 24 hours a day! Besides, who am I to tell them what they can and cannot do? I'm sure they know all about the consequences. I didn't like this any more then you but you have got to face reality!" she said. Cassie, being a smart girl, jumped right in.  
  
"Listen to her daddy." She said, with her best little girl angel face. It didn't work; she was still wearing nothing but a sheet.  
  
"If this was a real relationship, if you had known the boy for more then what? A week? But this,. . This shows only that you really are too young to have a relationship and thus too young to have sex."  
  
"This isn't just a summer fling! We are going to see each other after this!" She pleaded for him to understand. To her surprise her former ally turned on her.  
  
"No you won't. We're moving away." Chris answered, back to her normal tone of voice.  
  
"What? But he..." Cassie stammered.  
  
"He didn't tell you? Now can you see that I am right?" TC asked, genuinely feeling sorry for his daughter.  
  
"No daddy, it is still my choice. It's just not a debate or a democracy. This is my choice and though you can voice your opinion I get the final say. It's my choice." Cassie argued.  
  
"So you chose to let that boy sneak into your room? You chose for that sicko to seduce you like a common whore?" He spat the words out. He just couldn't get the image of his daughter and that... that pervert out of his head.  
  
Soon a red mark in the form of a hand appeared across his cheek. And he realized Chris had just slapped him.  
  
"Stop Insulting My Son!!!" she exclaimed.  
  
"You're right! I should be insulting you! You're obviously unfit to be a parent! Letting him off the hook that easily!"  
  
Though she wouldn't admit it, this remark had really hurt Chris and for a moment she didn't know what to say. Cassie however, rejoined the screaming match.  
  
"Oh shove it dad! You are both overprotective, overbearing psycho's! You should be happy, you found your soulmate!"  
  
"You know what, TC? I happen to think I have done a pretty good job under the circumstances. I know it hasn't been a walk in the park for you either, with Cory and all. And I realized you are in shock, seeing what you thought was your baby girl like that. But you need to realize that if you ever insult my children or my abilities as a parent again I will break your arm, if not another part of your anatomy." Chris growled and started to move out of the room.  
  
"You can't just threaten people like that!" Michelle angrily said, finally getting into it.  
  
Chris just eyed her with disgust "You're pathetic you know that? Find someone your own age." And then, taking long strides, walked out of the room, slamming the door.  
  
"You handled that really well daddy." Cassie said sarcastically, then walked into the bathroom, slamming the door just as hard.  
  
TC, feeling quite helpless looked at Michelle. Who just glared at him. He sighed and walked over to the window, just staring out of it.  
  
"Could you leave please? I think I have to talk to Cassie alone." TC said, without looking away from the window.  
  
Michelle rolled her eyes at his back, then conceded and like it was nothing at all let her anger drop.  
  
"TC, maybe I should handle this, this is more of a woman's issue." She said, wanting to get closer to her boyfriend's daughter.  
  
"Look Michelle, no offence, you are a lovely person, but you aren't a parent. I really think I need to sort this out with Cassie myself." He said, finally turning around.  
  
"TC, this really asks for a woman's perspective, not a mother's, just let me try."  
  
TC felt a headache rise up, one that would probably stick with him the entire day...  
  
"We'll do it together." He sighed. This meant far more then he was willing to admit. Going in to talk to his daughter with his girlfriend? That just screamed commitment. And in these confusing times commitment wasn't something he was willing to give.  
  
Michelle smiled at him and took his hand in hers. Together they walked over to the bathroom door.  
  
"Cassie honey? It's me, Michelle and your dad. Can we talk to you please?"  
  
"Get the hell out of my room!" Cassie yelled through the door.  
  
"I'm guessing that's a no." TC said dryly.  
  
~  
  
"Start packing." Chris said the moment she entered her own room.  
  
"What?" Sam asked, mad that she was being punished for something her brother had done.  
  
"Start packing NOW." Chris commanded.  
  
"Mom, don't be so over dramatic about this, nothing happened." Tom tried to reassure her, and so save what was left of the vacation.  
  
"Tom, if I had woken up half an hour later something would have happened but that isn't even the point. You're a smart boy, she's a smart girl, you would've figured it all out. Believe it or not, I won't beat you up for that. What I am going to beat you up for is that you did not let me know where you were going, or even that you were away. Tom, I thought that by now you would understand the importance of that... I trusted you, but you have showed that you aren't worthy of that trust, so we are going back." Chris said, looking more disappointed then anything.  
  
"But mom! I haven't done anything wrong!" Sam whined, totalled pissed off that her brother had so moronically ruined her vacation.  
  
"Yeah mom, come on, you have to realise we're not kids anymore! How long are we going to have to stay under this constant protection? We can hardly move, I mean we're almost adults, I want to go to college sometime, I will want to live on my own! You can't protect us our whole life mom!"  
  
"Maybe not! But for now I can. Now you aren't going to college, or to live on your own, now you are a high-school student living under my care, and it is MY responsibility that you don't get yourself killed!" Chris voice started taking on volume again.  
  
"Mom, we're alive, and yeah that's probably because of your excellent care, but tell me, what is the point of life if all you do is try to avoid death? I want to live mom, do things other people do... Have some privacy."  
  
"You make it sound like I locked you up in the big brother house." Chris muttered. "Do you honestly think, that I don't want you to have that life? That this whole operation is meant just to rob you and your sister of a normal life? Honey I don't want that, I am doing my best to life you all the life you can handle and all I asked for was a little cooperation. I always thought I had your trust, that you saw what I was doing was necessary, but you don't, so we are leaving this place, it isn't safe here anymore."  
  
"It won't be safe anywhere." Sam said, crossing her arms and daring her mother to answer that one.  
  
The End  
  
Nah just kidding, more chapters are yet to come. Please leave a review on your way out.  
  
she yelled at Chris. that! she felt the need to set them straight. o she could get dressedbe, why the hell did you give her he 


	5. We're rich this time

AN: decided to continue with this story, bit late but that's my muse's fault, she keeps on botching to me! BTW because I am a very proper and good girl there are no swear words in this chapter. If you find words similar to swearwords that just MUST be your imagination, I didn't just change a letter or anything. Thanks to my lovely beta readers who fished many a mistake out of this little piece of crop. Namely Chiquinta and Glory_02.  
  
Anyway, chappy 5!  
  
~  
  
Cassie sat in her room back home looking out the window. She had about a thousand things to do but couldn't get her mind into that homework mode. She missed him so much! He had her telephone number and had actually called a couple of times, but for some reason he never got 'round to giving her his number. Someone knocked on her door and when she didn't answer walked in.  
  
"I brought you some tea and an apple." Michelle said, and put them on her desk where the math books lay still unopened.  
  
When Cassie didn't answer or even respond Michelle moved and sat down next to her on the bed, looking at the sea and blue skies right outside the window.  
  
"Look Cassie, I just want to be your friend, if you ever need to talk to me, well you know where I'll be." She said, and petted Cassie's brown hair. This was just too demeaning to ignore.  
  
"Yeah, in my dad's bedroom." She snorted.  
  
"Is that what this is about? Your dad has a relationship and you feel so neglected that you are doing stupid things to get his attention back?" Michelle asked.  
  
"Wow you have figured me out... Yes, my whole life revolves around my father! And you must be evil because you are dating him. You haven't even figured out that he doesn't love you at all! He just needs someone warm beside him..." Cassie said, her voice filled with pity and a notch of contempt.  
  
"Don't belittle my relationship with your father like that! He does love me. And you just can't bare that thought can you? That your father loves someone besides you."  
  
"Oh he loves people, he loves his friends, his family, and he has loved several women. And yes he loves me, I am his daughter. But you are just like the rest of them, he likes you, but the moment he needs to talk to someone he won't come to you. And eventually, if you don't dump him first he will have to let you go."  
  
"Listen you little brat, I will not tell you this again! What your father and I have is very special!"  
  
"What? Ran out of arguments so decided name calling would suffice?" Cassie asked, smiling sweetly.  
  
Michelle didn't like being out-witted by a 16 year old, she huffed and puffed and stormed out of the room.  
  
"Moron." Cassie muttered, then went to do her homework, Michelle had proven to be an adequate diversion.  
  
~  
  
"DUDE!!!" Sam yelled when Chris pulled up before their new home. It was one huge mansion.  
  
"We're rich this time." Chris smirked. "Come on, let's go inside."  
  
They toured the monstrous house, and had muscle aches from all the walking when they had been through it all.  
  
"So, decided what rooms you want?" Chris asked, letting herself drop down on the couch.  
  
"I want that all marble one with the whirlpool in the adjoining bathroom." Sam said, flopping down next to her mother.  
  
"I want the blue one, with the terrace..." he said, naming the adjoining room to Sam's that by the way also had its own bathroom.  
  
"Alright, I'll take the one across the hall then." Chris said, referring to the master bedroom with a HUGE bed in it.  
  
"So will we have a staff or something?" Sam asked, feeling hungry.  
  
"Yes, we will have a cook, two maids, a couple of security people, Bubba of course, and a cleaner or two... Don't think this means room-service though!"  
  
"Ah come on, once or twice, a nice breakfast in bed..." Tom dreamed on.  
  
"Only if you it means no inconvenience to the staff, they all have jobs you know. Anyway, time to get our new identities out."  
  
Tom and Sam simultaneously groaned.  
  
"I hate twins!" Chris complained.  
  
"Stop complaining and read the thing already." Sam playfully shoved herm other.  
  
"Anthony Samuel Erickson meet your dear sister Antonia Samantha Erickson. For short you will be called, surprise surprise, Tom and Sam! I will be your adoptive mother, now who ever thought of that brilliant bit of fiction? Gwendolyn Kristin Erickson. We seem to be filthy rich and moved after your adoptive father divorced me... Poor me! Well apparently I am crushed..." Tom chuckled "who thought of the name Erickson? What are we a Swedish?"  
  
"We might as well be... Originally that is, or your father originally was... Which makes brilliant sense because I am the only blond in the family."  
  
"Can't we just shoot the father? I hate to explain all that 'my parents are divorced and I feel so crappy about it' stuff." Sam said.  
  
"Nope, can't kill the father, you can just not like him though, or not want to talk about it or whatever."  
  
"Who would name a guy named Anthony, Tom?" Tom asked, quite puzzled.  
  
"Apparently, me and your wicked father." Chris said dryly. "I am named Kristin... That name just sucks."  
  
"And matching names for us, you and our very evil father weren't very original, were you?" Sam snorted.  
  
"Well, what else do you need to know? Ah right, your bank accounts." She handed both of her children a sealed envelope. "You're bank account numbers, passes and codes, you both have one thousand dollar on it and a monthly allowance of 200... Man! You'd better not be spoiled little brats when this ends! Anyway, your drivers licenses are in there too, though all of us have a personal chauffeur."  
  
"Cool!" Sam exclaimed, really starting to like this life. "I wouldn't have a personal hairdresser, would I?"  
  
Chris flipped through the folder she was pulling all the information from.  
  
"Ah, Ilya one of the maids has also been undercover as a hair dresser before... Of all the jobs in the FBI she gets to be a maid and a hairdresser..."  
  
"So all the staff is FBI?" Tom asked.  
  
"Yes they are." Chris nodded.  
  
"Well, that's enough information for me. What do you say Sam, shall we make good use of that completely outfitted and might I add roomy gym we seem to have at our disposal for a spar or two?"  
  
"Anthony Samuel Erickson I think we have a plan... Although.. Ma where are our clothes?"  
  
"Your suitcases are being hauled upstairs as we speak, and the additional wardrobes that have been purchased for your use are being placed in the walk-in closets of your chosen rooms as we speak." Chris said, rolling her eyes at all this luxury. She'd never get her kids back in a trailer park after this.  
  
Sam squealed and raced upstairs, Tom followed slightly slower.  
  
Chris lay down on the bench in her new drawing room and stared at the ceiling. Sam had gotten over their abruptly ended vacation rather quickly but Tom was still unhappy about not seeing Cassie anymore. She wished she could do something about it. But in all honesty she couldn't. Bringing her here would only compromise their cover, endanger Cassie and bring TC back in her life, something she both dreaded and longed for. Besides, the FBI just wouldn't let her if she wanted to anyway.  
  
"MA!" Sam yelled through the intercom "COME SEE THIS!"  
  
With a sigh Chris hauled herself of the incredibly comfortable couch and wondered where Sam's room was again.  
  
~  
  
"I suggest you shove that where the sun don't shine." Cassie told Michelle, both were looking severely pissed.  
  
"Now listen to me you little botch! I do not permit such language! And when I tell you to do the dishes you WILL do the frelling dishes!" Michelle yelled at her boyfriends daughter.  
  
"You have no authority over me! You are in MY house ordering ME about? You are one sick little freak!" Cassie felt like sinking her nails into the woman.  
  
"Your mother!" Michelle yelled.  
  
"Michelle!" TC bellowed from the doorway, looking extremely angry.  
  
"Oh! I didn't realize! I'm so sorry Cassie, I never meant to insult your mother!" Michelle yelped, practically bursting out in tears.  
  
"No, just me!" Cassie yelled at her, then raced past her father straight to her room.  
  
"For your information the dishes have already been done. Cassie did them when we went to get the ice-cream." TC calmly said. "Now if you would kindly leave the house, I have to talk to my daughter." He said, still dead calm.  
  
"TC I really am sorry, I'm not used to this you know, I didn't know what to do."  
  
"Don't ever yell at her like that again." TC just said and showed her the door.  
  
When she was gone he went to Cassie's room and softly knocked on the door, he heard sobs on the other side so entered.  
  
"Cass?" He softly asked, and sat down on the bed where she lay crying, he softly rubbed her back. "You shouldn't have yelled at her like that." He said.  
  
"She shouldn't have yelled at me like that!" Cassie sobbed.  
  
"I know, and I told her that, but you should have a little more patience with her. Why didn't you just say you had already done the dishes?"  
  
"Because it was supposed to be a surprise! You were to walk in and find the dishes done and the kitchen clean! She wasn't supposed to order me to do it!"  
  
She clutched her father's shirt and cried against his shoulder.  
  
"Hey, you just have to have a little patience with her, I will make sure she never treats you that badly again." He said, putting his arms around his daughter.  
  
"I love you daddy." Cassie sobbed, returning the hug.  
  
"I love you too, sweetheart." He answered, quite touched. "Do you feel better now?" He asked. She wiped her eyes and nose with her sleeve and nodded. He pulled a face, knowing he was going to have to get that stain out.  
  
"Want to watch a movie?" He then asked.  
  
"Yeah." she agreed "Something with Johnny Depp."  
  
~  
  
"Can you get to the bus-stop on Rosing lane at six PM this Wednesday?" Tom asked her.  
  
"Six? I have to eat dinner at six." Cassie answered.  
  
"OK... can you make 7:30 then?"  
  
"Yes... I will have to figure out something to tell my dad though."  
  
"But you will come?" Tom pressed.  
  
"Yes, I will do whatever it takes." She smiled into the phone.  
  
"Good! I can't wait to see you again... I have so much to tell you."  
  
"Shut! I have to go." Cassie hissed into the phone and hung up. Tom stared at the phone for a moment then put it back into the cradle by his bed. He looked up to see Sam standing there.  
  
"What exactly will you tell her?" She asked.  
  
"The truth, she needs to know why, she deserves to know."  
  
"So you are going to continue to see her? Despite mom?"  
  
He shrugged, then nodded.  
  
"It's not just your secret to tell, you will be endangering us all!" Sam said.  
  
"Yeah, Cassie is a super secret mob spy." He sarcastically answered.  
  
"Oh come on! You know as well as I do the less people that know the smaller the risk."  
  
"So, you are forbidding me to tell her? You don't know anything Sam! I really like this girl! I want to continue seeing her and I think she will keep our secret, I trust her!"  
  
"And what if you two break up? And she is so mad that she tells?"  
  
"Cassie wouldn't do that, besides, she wouldn't know who to tell!"  
  
"It's relatively easy to find out if you have the proper incentive, Besides she could just tell one of her friends who tells another one of her friends and before you know it we are dead."  
  
"You are over exaggerating. Now are you going to tell mom?"  
  
"I'm no snitch." She growled, then walked out of his room, feeling deep in her heart that nothing good would come of this. 


	6. Of gross foods

Chapter 6  
  
Sam paced up and down her room, it was 9:30 already, mom would start suspecting things if Tom didn't hurry back. She jumped when Chris entered her room.  
  
"Woah, calm down it's just me." Chris smiled.  
  
"I'm just feeling a bit antsy." Sam waved it off.  
  
"Feeling like taking a swim in our indoor swimming pool?" Chris asked, having decided that as long as she was living in the lap of luxury she might as well enjoy it. The swimming pool by the way started inside but ended outside.  
  
"Yeah sure." Sam said, in the hopes this would distract her and her mother enough so neither would think of Tom.  
  
"OK, I'll ask Tom." Chris said, getting a weird vibe from her too nervous daughter.  
  
"No! No, I'll do it, you just start choosing a suit to wear, I do want to start swimming today."  
  
"Like I can't choose quickly! I happen to do that for a living! People's lives are at stake when I make quick judgement calls." Chris huffed, making a mental note to find out what was going on with Sam.  
  
"Yeah whatever, just shoo, start dressing." She waved her mother out of her room and followed her, then waited until her mother was safely in her room to knock on Tom's door and let herself in.  
  
"He doesn't want to come." Sam informed Chris a minute later, sticking her head in her mother's room.  
  
Chris came out of her walk-in closet holding three bathing suits "Which one?" She asked.  
  
"Oh now Miss quick call wants my opinion!" Sam laughed. Then pointed to the two piece, "That one definitely."  
  
"Done. Why didn't he want to come? He seems so down lately..." Chris said.  
  
"He just needs to sort this out for himself, you can't protect us from everything mom." Sam assured her with a guilty heart.  
  
"I wish I could. If you two would just stop growing up..."  
  
"What, feeling old?"  
  
"Me? Old? Don't make me laugh!" Chris said and fake laughed.  
  
~  
  
"Hey."  
  
"Hey Cassie." He awkwardly hugged her, not knowing what the procedure was when you last saw your girlfriend, if she even was his girlfriend, while being kicked out of the room by her father.  
  
"I missed you." She smiled shyly.  
  
"I missed you too, a lot." He answered, and smiled back.  
  
"I uhm... never got your phone number."  
  
"I think I can explain why... I have something to tell you, but you must swear never to tell this to anyone, not even if we break up."  
  
"I shan't breath a word." She said, feeling quite poetic upon the sight of her boyfriend.  
  
"I'm serious."  
  
"So am I, I won't tell."  
  
"Alright." He took her hand and led her to an empty bench where they both sat down. "Well, it's a rather complicated story... When Sam and I were five years old..." And he continued to tell the whole story.  
  
"Oh my god! I never would have guessed. It must be so hard for you all!"  
  
"Sometimes, like when I met you." He said.  
  
"Well, I guess I know why your mom is so protective of you. Did she allow you to tell me?"  
  
"No, she doesn't know I'm here. She thinks I'm in my room brooding."  
  
"And Sam?"  
  
"Is covering for me."  
  
"Oh my... I mean this is true isn't it? You're not pulling my leg or anything."  
  
"I swear it's true. I wish it wasn't."  
  
"But then you'd never have met Chris, or me in all probability."  
  
"I'd never have lost my parents, I wouldn't need Chris to be my mother. I never would've known her so wouldn't be able to miss her. Who knows, she might have been your mother."  
  
"That's a bit harsh, isn't it?" Cassie frowned  
  
"Oh don't get me wrong, I do love her as if she was my own mother but still I'd rather have had a normal life with my own parents." Tom tried to explain.  
  
"Then by now you probably would have been in the mafia."  
  
"My parents were killed because they wanted to get out." He explained.  
  
"That's what you have been told as a five year old." Cassie commented.  
  
Tom was silent for a minute. "I guess... But Cassie, I want to see you more often, I can't give you the number to my phone, the numbers are saved, I just found out how to change the numbers of out-going calls..."  
  
"I want to see you too. Just be careful, let at least Sam know where you're going, I don't want to be the cause of your death."  
  
"Of course I'll be careful." He said, then leaned in to kiss her, a kiss she was happy to answer.  
  
~  
  
"And what were you doing out so late?" Michelle put her book down and looked sternly at Cassie.  
  
"Nothing." Cassie said defensively.  
  
"You have a hickey on your neck." Cassie blushed and tried to pull up her shirt a bit.  
  
"Don't worry, there is no hickey." Michelle then said "It was that boy from the hotel wasn't it?"  
  
"No, I just met this guy on the beach." Cassie shrugged. "Why do you care anyway?"  
  
"Because if your father finds out you are still seeing that boy he will not be happy. And whatever else you may think of me all I want is for your father to be happy."  
  
"You won't tell him will you?" Cassie asked, more concerned with her own happiness at the moment.  
  
"No, but you will have to be more careful, make up better excuses, fix your make-up before coming in. I could help you."  
  
"Are you going to?"  
  
"Truce?" Michelle suggested.  
  
"Truce." Cassie nodded and shook her father's partner's hand.  
  
"So tell me everything." Michelle smiled and to Cassie's own surprise she did and had a good time doing it too. She was beginning to warm up to Michelle.  
  
~  
  
"I am not covering for you anymore, I won't lie to mom." Sam said coming into his room.  
  
"How did you know I was back?" He asked.  
  
"I saw you climb up the terrace, and I bet half of the security camera's did as well."  
  
"Don't worry, I have it covered." He said. "I brought a book with me and that shows on the camera's as well, if anyone wants to know where I was going I just needed some air and went for a walk on the grounds, then stopped half way to read a bit."  
  
"Then why didn't you just use the front door?" Sam asked.  
  
"Why should I if I have my own way out?"  
  
"Whatever, just from now on I am not going to lie for you anymore."  
  
"Alright, I won't ask then... Just don't tell on me."  
  
"Are you going again?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Well don't let me know when." Sam said, sulking.  
  
"I have to, I promised Cassie that I'd always tell at least you where I was going."  
  
"Smart girl, just leave a note in the pocket of the second jacket on the right in your closet and if you aren't back before mom starts to get worried I will get it."  
  
"Deal. I owe you one."  
  
"You owe me about a million." Sam unhappily said.  
  
"If there is ever anything I can do for you just give a shout." Tom grinned.  
  
"Believe me, I will."  
  
"This intercom is so cool!" Chris voice came over the intercom "Now I don't have to holler that dinner's ready!"  
  
"And why is she so happy?" Tom asked his sister.  
  
"Beats me." Sam shrugged, then went over to the intercom "We're coming... If we can still find the way back."  
  
"Hurry up, I'm hungry!" Chris answered.  
  
~  
  
"What's this?" Tom asked looking at the greyish blubber on his plate, adorned with some stripes of green veggies.  
  
"No idea, the chef explained it all before you arrived... It's something with a French name, that is supposed to be a delicacy." Chris shrugged, poking at the grey slobber to see if it was still alive.  
  
"Snails are supposed to be a delicacy." Sam said.  
  
"Brain and tongue are too." Tom added.  
  
Chris looked a bit disgusted, but stabbed her fork into the mass and lifted it. A piece of greyness came with it. She looked like she was daring herself to eat it, brought it a little closer but then threw her fork back down.  
  
"Who's up for pizza?" She asked, a bit guiltily. She was supposed to raise these kids properly, have them eat what was for dinner and all that stuff. But really, grey slobber with a French name?  
  
Tom grinned, Sam sighed in relief. "I do." They said simultaneously and rather chipper, then looked at each other, some annoyance evident.  
  
"Who'd a thought?" Chris dryly answered.  
  
~  
  
TC absently poked in his vegetable pie. Michelle and Cassie were chatting amiably, really bonding it seemed. Which didn't really fit his agenda.  
  
"TC, aren't you hungry?" Michelle asked, a bit concerned.  
  
"What?" He asked, only looking up because he heard his name.  
  
"You haven't eaten anything." Michelle pointed out.  
  
"Oh..." He said, looking down at his now messed up pie. "If you'll excuse me..." He said, and rushed away from the dinner table. Michelle and Cassie shared a surprised look, then Cassie moved to stand up and go after her father.  
  
"No, I'll do it." Michelle said, standing up a bit quicker then absolutely necessary "You just finish your meal."  
  
~  
  
He stood in his study, his arms crossed, looking out the window, leaning against the frame. Michelle silently approached him and put a, what she thought to be comforting hand on his shoulder. His muscles were tense.  
  
"Want to talk about it?" She asked, trying to keep her voice light.  
  
How could he tell her? That sometimes it just pained him to see what the world was coming to. Every youth in his district seemed to have spent some time in jail. If not that, they at least have fake ID's, smoke, drink, do drugs and whatnot. And then the adults, thinking up great schemes on how to cheat the law in the most brilliant and awful ways. There was just too much wrong with the world. He couldn't stand the thought that Cassie lived among all that impurity. How could he possible explain to her that Cassie was too good for this world? That she was an angel, not meant to like lower beings like Michelle.  
  
He hated himself for thinking so. He didn't think Michelle too low for himself, he actually used to like her. But not Cassie, she should be surrounded by only the finest. That didn't mean he thought he was the best the human race had to offer, far from it, he viewed himself more as her protector. Entrusted with the important job of shielding this little girl from the evils of the world. And he really didn't want his precious girl ending up like Michelle.  
  
"No." He answered, poker face on. He shrugged her hand off.  
  
"But you know I'll be there for you when you do want to talk right?" She persisted.  
  
"Don't mind me." TC turned, smiling a bit sadly "Just a melancholy attack. I hear they come more often when a man reaches my age." He put his arm around her shoulder and went back to the dinner table.  
  
"You okay daddy?" Cassie asked, a bit concerned.  
  
"I am, sorry to run out on you like this." He apologized.  
  
"Don't worry, I'd run away from this pie too... Where did you buy it anyway?" She said, wishing they had a dog to sneak the food to.  
  
"I made it myself actually." Michelle informed her.  
  
"Oh uhm... It's lovely?" Cassie tried to take back the blatant insult she had unwittingly bestowed upon Michelle.  
  
~  
  
Cassie grabbed her phone the minute it started ringing. "Hello?" she immediately said, a rush running through her, anticipating who it was on the other side.  
  
"Hey beautiful." Tom answered, smiling into the phone.  
  
"Hey Sarah, what's up?" Cassie said, to fool her father, then took the phone back to her room to have a bit more privacy. TC would have caught it under normal circumstances but he was distracted by Michelle. Who really was invading his personal space at the moment. He really felt like just shoving her out of his house and telling her never to come back but he knew he wouldn't. He wasn't that insensitive a man.  
  
"TC?" Michelle poked him.  
  
"What?" He grumpily answered, moving away from her a bit on the couch.  
  
"I asked you a question! What's with you today?" Michelle snapped.  
  
"Nothing, I am just a bit tired, alright?" TC avoided her question.  
  
"Well, don't take it out on me. I am only trying to help you!"  
  
"Well don't!" He snapped at her.  
  
"You know what, I am sick of being treated this way. Call me when you have come to your senses." Michelle said, grabbing her purse and moving away from him quickly. He made no move to stop her.  
  
~  
  
"I missed you." Tom said, wishing he had come up with a better line to start the conversation with.  
  
"I missed you too; we HAVE to meet again, soon." Cassie answered, letting herself fall on the bed, grabbing her old teddy bear for cuddle material. Wishing for the real thing.  
  
"I know, I am doing my very best to find a better escape route." Tom sighed.  
  
"You're not the only one, it's like every cop in town knows who I am! Look, sometimes I go up to my mom, my dad knows that, we could meet there."  
  
"Uhm... Isn't your mother dead?" Tom hesitantly asked.  
  
"Well yeah, I meant her grave. It is near the bus stop where we met today. It is very secluded so there is little chance of anyone seeing us. And well... There's a motel near there." She giggled, not believing how forward she was being.  
  
"But at a graveyard... isn't that a bit weird?" He asked, the whole motel thing appealing to him much more.  
  
"It is beautiful, this green slope overlooking the ocean. You really need to see it."  
  
"OK, so pick me up from the bus stop the day after tomorrow. I think I'll be able to sneak out effectively." He agreed.  
  
Cassie smiled into the phone "Great! I can't wait to see you!" She practically squealed.  
  
"Me either." To her Tom sounded as charming as that French dude with the nose, but more handsome of course.  
  
"Hell, I've got to go, dad's coming." She rushed to say, then turned off the phone and pretended to be really interested in her teddy bear, checking for lint and all that.  
  
"Cassie, honey, you decent?" TC asked, knocking on her door.  
  
"It's eight PM, of course I am decent, what you think, I suddenly had an urge to run around naked?" Cassie said, teasing her dad a bit.  
  
"Wouldn't be the first time, I distinctly remember an instant when a kindergarten teacher called me, in a panic because you had taken all your clothes off and refused to put them back on." TC grinned, sitting down on her bed beside her.  
  
"I was 4 dad! And still embarrassed about it! So stop teasing." She chuckled "What are you doing here anyway?"  
  
"I was just wondering if you were alright. You know go all paternal on you." He shrugged.  
  
"Yes daddy, I am alright. Question is, are you? As far as I know you don't run out on dinner without a really good reason." Cassie stated.  
  
TC sighed, wishing women wouldn't ask so many questions.  
  
"You are getting tired of her, aren't you?" Cassie asked. Knowing her father pretty well.  
  
"Would I be a horrible person if I said yes?" He asked.  
  
"Yes, but I love you anyway." She kissed his cheek for effect.  
  
"Don't you ever fall in love with a guy like me. You deserve so much better. So does Michelle for that matter." He sighed, finding the world not very fair at the moment, even though he was the one about to break someone's heart, not get his own broken.  
  
"You are a good enough man, daddy. You are just a bit lost when it comes to women. But don't worry, the moment I meet the one girl that's perfect for you, I'll send her your way." Cassie chuckled.  
  
"Please, no more girls! They have a tendency to be a bit brain-dead." TC let himself drop backwards on her bed, feeling heartily sorry for himself.  
  
"OK, that is totally prejudiced. I am 16 and in no way brain-dead. It is just the type of girl you pick. But OK, someone your age then, who has a brain. That shouldn't be too hard. Any other requests?"  
  
"You aren't going to call a dating service are you?" He asked, warily.  
  
"No daddy, when I find the perfect woman I want to be able to take full credit. So what else do you look for in a woman?"  
  
"Strength of character; You know, she has to be able to hold her own. But not too much, she shouldn't mind my being a bit protective. She has to have a good sense of humour. When we're at one of those boring dinner's thrown by someone high and mighty, I want her to get and make funny comments between the two of us, so that we're sitting there like two giggling idiots." TC closed his eyes and started picturing her.  
  
"Let me just get my notebook." Cassie said. Quickly scribbling down everything he had said so far, then from her new spot at her desk turned back to him. "What else?"  
  
"She should know how to cook, that pie tonight belongs in the toxic waste!" He muttered.  
  
"I know! I thought you were going to be sick when you rushed away from dinner. Just when we didn't hear you vomiting..."  
  
"Yeah, I get the picture, thank you. Anyway, she should like you. Maybe have a grown kid that has long since moved away herself." TC continued.  
  
"Daddy! You are being totally selfish, if she has to like me, you have to like the other kid."  
  
"And I'll like it even better if it's far away." He chuckled.  
  
"You are not taking this seriously!" She protested.  
  
"Should I? It would look bad if I had my 16 year old daughter get me a date! Everyone would assume I couldn't do it myself!"  
  
"You are such an ass! You worry more about your reputation than any other man I know!"  
  
"And yet you love me." He grinned at her.  
  
"Yeah yeah, just continue with the list will you. And seriously this time!" She threateningly pointed her pen at him.  
  
"Right, serious. She has to be sweet, know when to just back off and let me be and when to be there. She has to have a bit of a caring streak, and surprise me sometimes. Then there are the little things. I can't stand a woman that tugs her hair all the time. She has to have a nice laugh and smile, if she sounds like a horse I am out of there. She has to look nice too." He said, then looked over at his daughter who was scribbling furiously.  
  
"You got all that?" He asked.  
  
"One sec." she said and wrote on. "Right, now I have it. Describe, nice looking, which by the way is totally chauvinistic of you."  
  
"Well, I prefer blonds but it's more about the eyes, if her eyes are really beautiful, and smile when she smiles then I am happy. Oh and she has to be tall, I'll get a hernia if I have to bow down three feet just to kiss her. And well... There should be something else to her, a sparkle, something just makes you admire her."  
  
"Dad, you are so shallow." Cassie summarized when reading the notes.  
  
"I thought the sparkle thing was very deep really." TC disagreed.  
  
"Yeah well date Tinkerbell."  
  
"I would, but goes against one of the other items on that list. She isn't very tall now is she?"  
  
"One thing though." Cassie remembered.  
  
"What?" TC asked.  
  
"Dump Michelle first, and do it nicely, I don't want her creeping about at night with all kinds of vengeance in mind."  
  
"Yes mom." TC smirked, standing up from the bed and walking over to her. He dropped a kiss on the top of her head. "love you baby girl." He muttered, then left.  
  
"Yeah yeah... I mean it! Dump first!" Cassie called after him. Then chuckling turned back to the notes. Her father really was a selfish man. And looking for the impossible, how would a woman with strength of character react if she heard all the things TC had just said about women?  
  
~  
  
OK next up: TC tries to dump Michelle, Cassie and Tom continue seeing each other and the summer is over, back to school for the kiddies.  
  
PS French dude with nose obviously is Cyrano de Bergerac. 


	7. Insecurities

AN: Short chapter, but I've been told it's alright. I hope you like it.  
  
"Hey mom, I want you to meet someone. This is Tom, my boyfriend." Cassie told the grey stone. She knew on some level it wasn't normal to do this, to hold on to the memory of a mother she had never even seen but she couldn't stop it. Dead or not, this was her mother and she loved her.  
  
"Uhm... Hello, Mrs. McNamara. I have heard a lot about you. And well, I wish we could have met while you were still alive. I hear you were an amazing person, much like your daughter here. I promise I will treat her well." Tom said, more to humour Cassie then for himself, cause really, he wasn't in the habit of talking to headstones.  
  
"Well at least one of my parents knows about you now." Cassie smiled at him, then took his arm, guiding him to a bench nearby. "I told you this place is beautiful."  
  
"It is, you were right. Long way up though."  
  
"You know I met your mother here. I didn't know then that she was your mother of course. I thought she was pretty cool. Never thought she would've been a special FBI type bodyguard person though." Cassie told him.  
  
"That is the general idea, if she would tell everyone what she does for a living me and Sam would be long dead." He smirked. "But I don't want to talk about mum, I want to know how you have been. Everything this time." He genuinely meant it, that is quite the accomplishment for a sixteen year old hormone filled boy who knows there is a motel near that his girlfriend wouldn't mind paying a visit to.  
  
"You know Michelle right?" Cassie asked him.  
  
"Your dad's girlfriend?" He answered.  
  
"Yeah, well you know, I never really minded her, but since that day at the hotel, where I was a bit rude to her... Well, that's an understatement, I was horrible. But since then we haven't been on friendly terms. Until I came back from our first... How do you call this anyway? Doesn't really classify as date, does it?"  
  
"Meeting?" Tom suggested.  
  
"Works for me. So after I came back from our first meeting she knew I had been with you. It was creepy how she just figured that out. But she promised not to tell dad, cause you know, he would freak. It does mean however, that I have to be all nice to her, and just buddy up to her so she will think we're becoming real friends or something."  
  
"And you are not becoming friends?" Tom asked cautiously, trying not to sound stupid.  
  
"What would be the point? Dad already told me he is going to dump her. Besides, she's a floozy. I just need to make sure that that floozy won't tell on me when dad dumps her."  
  
"Why would she do that?"  
  
"To hurt him of course!" Cassie exclaimed.  
  
"Yeah, but then he would know about the situation and could fix it. Not that I want him to fix it, I mean, as far as I am concerned there is nothing to fix, since this is really right but... You know!" Tom stumbled over his words trying to say the right thing.  
  
"I know. But I still have to be careful around Michelle." Cassie laughed. She then leaned in to kiss him "You are adorable you know that?" She whispered against his lips.  
  
"I was thinking the same thing about you." He smiled, then kissed her again.  
  
Both of them being rather hormonal teenagers it was very predictable that the two would keep on making out until finally Cassie pulled back.  
  
"Want to go check out that motel?" She asked, wishing he would take some more initiative.  
  
He rapidly pulled back. "Yeah!" He exclaimed, then more shyly took her hand "Uhm, Cass... Have you ever done that before?" he asked.  
  
"What exactly?" She asked.  
  
"You know... IT." He explained.  
  
"Oh uhm... well no. But I really want to, with you." She smiled encouragingly.  
  
"Well, I have never done it before either so... Just don't expect too much of me, ok?" aww, teenage insecurities.  
  
Cassie smiled and kissed him "Same here. We'll just muddle through together." She grinned, and started pulling him along.  
  
"So you are on the pill right?" He asked, knowing that getting pregnant would be a really bad thing, especially in his situation.  
  
"Are you kidding? My dad would find out in three seconds! Don't worry, I brought condoms." She assured him.  
  
"I did too... but it could rip or something." He complained.  
  
She stopped in her tracks and swivelled around to face him "So do you want to do this or not? Cause I can't go on the pill, not while still living with dad anyway. We can either do this now or wait 'till I am twenty or something and move out."  
  
"I want to do this." He softly kissed her lips "But I want us to be careful while doing this. I don't want to loose you." He placed one arm around her waist and more calmly started walking towards the motel.  
  
~  
  
"I feel like a dressed up monkey!" Sam complained, tugging at her new school-uniform that was required at their new and exclusive private school.  
  
"You look adorable!" Chris exclaimed. Trying not to laugh. In truth the twins looked a lot like dressed up monkeys, twin monkeys of course. "You look like twins for a change."  
  
"And the good thing about that would be..." Tom muttered. He loved his sister to death and everything, but he would like to be seen as an individual as opposed to a part of a greater whole.  
  
Ironically, Sam couldn't agree with him more on that subject. "Mom, no more private schools from now on." She warned her mother.  
  
"Like you've got a say." Chris grinned "Anyway. Bubba will drive you both to school, stay there and drive you back when you're done."  
  
"Oh come on! We have got cars! We don't need to a baby-sitter anymore mom!" Tom objected.  
  
"If you run into any trouble, the janitor, librarian and headmaster's secretary are ours. We have already cleared your body-guard with the school, we've told them your father might try to get you back and we think it's necessary." Chris said, ignoring Tom's whining.  
  
"Great." Sam sighed. "I guess we'll be going then."  
  
"Drink your juice first, Sam, and Tom have some breakfast, I don't want you starving." Chris said, her voice as motherly as any real mother's ever had been.  
  
Tom shoved some toast in his mouth as Sam gulped down her juice. Then the two walked out of the kitchen in stride, silently protesting against being 'different'.  
  
Sam leaned against the wall in the lobby where they waited for Bubba to bring the car around. She looked at Tom and suddenly smirked.  
  
"You've had sex." She stated.  
  
Tom was surprised by this rather blunt statement. "So what if I did? I am not going to discuss it with you!"  
  
"And why not? Last I checked I still was your only friend." Sam said.  
  
"Because you are my sister!" Tom protested.  
  
"So, how was it?" Sam asked, more to tease him then actually wanting to know.  
  
"Great." Tom muttered, REALLY not happy with this topic of conversation with his SISTER of all people. Granted, it would be worse if it had been his mother.  
  
Sam didn't answer, just raised her eyebrow, clearly not believing it, or at least trying to get him to feel even more uncomfortable.  
  
"OK, OK... Let's just hope practice makes perfect." Tom now turned his back to his loudly laughing sister, making sure she couldn't see his bright-red face.  
  
~  
  
"Hello."  
  
"Michelle? Hey, it's me..." TC hesitantly said into the phone.  
  
"So you've thought about what you said?" Michelle asked. And there TC was thinking he was the only parent between the two of them.  
  
"Michelle, I think we need some time apart." He said, to avoid all misunderstandings as to the reason he called.  
  
"What? Why?!" She exclaimed, sorely shocked.  
  
"Look, it isn't working out for me anymore. Really it isn't you it's me, I am a lousy person at the moment, neglecting every aspect of my life. There just doesn't seem to be enough of me to go around anymore you know? Cassie's stunt this summer, that's clearly a cry for help and I need to answer that, I have to help her. And my work, it has been so hectic lately. And I haven't been treating you right either. You deserve someone so much better than me!"  
  
"Yes I do, TC. I do deserve someone better but I don't want someone better. I want to be with you! I am not one of the things on your list, I am your partner, I can help you with Cassie, she needs a woman in her life. That way you can concentrate on your job more and when that has all settled down, and only then we can go spend some quality time together. It will be perfect." Michelle tried to persuade him.  
  
"No Michelle, I am just not ready for that kind of commitment. Relationships are a lot of work, deserve a lot of work, and that needs to come from both sides-."  
  
"You don't love me?" Michelle asked, cutting him off.  
  
"I am sorry Michelle." He said, really feeling sorry for the girl and wanting to smack himself over the head for having used her the way he did. "It was never supposed to go this far." He admitted.  
  
"But I love you TC! You have to love me!" Michelle was obviously crying on the other end of the line.  
  
"I am really sorry." TC said again, not knowing what else to say.  
  
"There's another woman, isn't there?" Michelle asked, "I demand an answer TC! I know your type, you are never long without a girlfriend! Tell me who she is TC!" Michelle cried.  
  
"There's no one else. I just can't be with you anymore." He answered, figuring this was not the time to bring up Cassie's little list.  
  
"So when everything has calmed down we will get back together?" She tried.  
  
TC rolled his eyes "No, probably not."  
  
"So this isn't about all the crap you just dished out! You have another woman and aren't man enough to come here and tell to my face that I wasn't good enough for you!"  
  
"No Michelle! Listen to me. I really care about you, but it is all just too much for me at the time. You shouldn't sit around waiting for an ass like me. You should be out there looking for the love of your life, the one person that will make you happier than anyone else ever could. I'm not that man, Michelle." He sighed "I am sorry but I'm not."  
  
She threw down the receiver. He almost jumped when right after he had put down the phone it started ringing again, he had caller ID but it was a secret number, so definitely not Michelle.  
  
"Hello?" He asked, wondering who he knew with a secret number.  
  
"You sound gloomy." The voice said, instead of making itself known.  
  
"Chris?" He asked, surprised that she of all people would call him.  
  
"Yeah, it's me. I just thought that we should get together sometime, to talk. And I don't mean start some hot torrid love affair, I just mean as friends. We were great friends for a while back in the day." She said.  
  
"Yes we were... We never were torrid though." He chuckled.  
  
"So how about it, do you want to renew our friendship?" Chris asked, he couldn't hear any of the emotions mingled through her voice that he used to be able to discern.  
  
"Yes, I would like that very much." He smiled through the phone, hoping she would be able to hear it.  
  
"Good... Good. So uhm... I can't give you my address or phone number, for safety's sake." Chris started.  
  
"I know." TC interrupted her "We can meet at my place. I assume you know where it is?"  
  
"Yes, I drove Cassie back from Cory's grave once. It has to be when the kids are in school though, I am assuming we aren't dragging them into this friendship." Chris said.  
  
"That would be the general idea. Let's see." TC started flipping through his organizer until he found the right date "I have the day after tomorrow off, you could come by then."  
  
Chris smiled into the phone, he could clearly hear it "Yeah, that would be great."  
  
~  
  
Chris put the phone down and sighed heavily. It had been such a stupid move to tell TC her secret. They hadn't seen each other in so long. She was sure he had to have changed and not all for the better. Michelle was evidence of that. Chris snorted at the thought of the bratty woman.  
  
She couldn't figure out why she told him. At the time it felt right, but then, at that time she had been completely caught up in old times. She had to make sure he was still the trust-worthy guy she remembered, and there was only one way to go about that. 


	8. Busted

The beach was predictably full. Two people walked along it, careful not to step on anyone. They weren't talking, just- …remembering. This beach held a lot of memories for them.

Chris shook her head, all that was ancient history, she should have the future in mind.

"You OK?" TC asked her.

"Yeah, just trying to stay away from memory lane," she said with a shrug.

"Do you have something better to do?" He looked quizzically at her.

Suddenly she didn't know what to say, embarrassed she looked down at her hands and the shoes she was holding in them. What was she supposed to say? 'Hey, you know I don't know if I can trust you.'?

"It's OK." He cracked a smile "I know you didn't just come here to renew our friendship."

She smiled back at him, though she wouldn't admit it, she was happy he still knew how her mind worked. Well, as much as he ever knew anyway. "I admit I have an ulterior motive but don't think I don't want to be friends with you. This is going to sound really pathetic but in a way you're the only friend I have left. You're the only one I can trust without… I have worked with Bubba for seven years but I still have him followed every now and then, just to be sure. I haven't trusted anyone completely since the twins."

He wondered if he should do something "It must be hard," he said.

She shrugged "You get used to it. It's harder on the twins, Tom is going through a rebellious stage right now."

"So is Cassie, it's like she went from child to adolescent over night." TC sighed.

"I bet I can guess which night." Chris quipped, unable to hide her amusement from him.

"I completely overreacted, I'm sorry I insulted you." He looked guiltily at her, and managed to look adorable at the same time. The man knew how to play a woman.

"You said it and no offence taken." Chris generously said.

"She's just going through a faze. I haven't been spending enough time with her and she had a problem with my uhm… lifestyle."

Chris snorted. "You mean your trashy girlfriend?"

"She wasn't trashy! She's a lawyer you know. And it wasn't so much Michelle as all the Michelle look-a-likes that preceded her. We've broken up now, so I am hoping Cassie will go back to normal soon," TC said.

"TC, there are two things I need to say right now and they won't sound very nice."

TC couldn't make out if she was being serious or not but he feared it was the former.

"First of all, stop thinking so much of yourself. The world does not revolve around you. You were like that when we were together too. Every time I had a problem you were all: Is this my fault? How is it going to affect me? Now you're doing the same thing with Cassie. She is a person in her own right, going through puberty at that. How often did you think about your parents while making out with a girl when you were her age?"

"OK, you have a point… Do you remember when my mother left my father?"

"You made a complete ass of yourself that time too." Chris nodded and grinned.

"It's harder than it looks you know. On the one hand I have been raised to expect things a certain way and while I now know things will not go that way I still expect them too." He tried to explain.

"You're just making perfect sense, really." Chris said dryly "are you trying to say you are struggling with traditional values?"

"Uhm… yeah." TC looked at her somewhat confused. She used to be just as crappy at expressing herself as he was.

"In my experience it helps to just ask if it has something to do with you, and take their word for it if they say it hasn't," she advised him, having gone through a similar situation with the twins.

"We strayed a bit off topic, didn't we?" He said, hoping to change the topic to something that made him look a little less inadequate.

"Did we have a topic?" Chris asked.

"Your ulterior motive… Why did you come here, Chris?" He looked her in the eyes but she looked away.

"Not trusting anyone is habit forming. I wanted to know if you had changed."

TC didn't respond and Chris felt guilty, so tried to fill the silence that hung between them.

"You have changed you know, but not where it really matters."

"You've changed too, and you're exactly the same." TC told her.

They were silent for a few moments,

"You said there were two things you needed to say that wouldn't sound very nice." TC remembered.

"Oh right," she thought back to the earlier part of their conversation. "You've gotten afraid of commitment, which I feel the need to apologize for… In our relationship you were always the one that wanted to move forward, and now…"

"Yes, Chris, you have ruined me for all other women," he laughed. "I've talked with my shrink about this. According to him I am disillusioned about women and relationships in general, so unable to make the necessary investments. I do however need the conformation that I am capable of being loved. Combined this leads to a string of not so long-term girlfriends." He told her.

"So basically your shrink gave you an excuse to lead those women on." Chris disapproved.

"I never make promises I can't keep. That hasn't changed, Chris. You can still trust me." This time when he looked at her she held his gaze. To his surprise there were tears in her eyes. He put her arm around her and gave her an affectionate squeeze.

"I'm sorry TC, I didn't mean to say … What must you think of me? Here I come and tell you I can't trust you and proceed to criticize your life. The least I could do is not cry but… Do you know how long it has been since I didn't have to keep a secret from someone?"

He wrapped his other arm around her as well, hugging her to him. Only now it hit him exactly how hard this life of secrecy had been on her. He felt a little guilty and good at the same time. Good that even after all this time it was him she went to have her little breakdown and guilty because he felt good about it. "It's alright, Chris. Sometimes I need a good kick on the behind and who better to give it to me than my friend? I'm always going to be your friend, Chris. You can cry or scream or criticize, I will always be your friend." He told her, slowly rubbing her back.

She smiled up at him through her tears. "Thanks." She said and stepped out of his arms.

"Your welcome, even the strongest person needs a hug every decade or so." He smiled back.

"So I am learning."

With a last smile they started to walk again, talking only of their beach side memories until they reached his house.

Michelle had had an awful few days. Basically she had been cursing all of male kind, cried her eyes out over her failed relationship and sat by the phone in an endless debate of 'should I call him?'

After a few days of moping around however she arrived at the acceptance part. Sure she loved the guy, but the guy was nothing but a son-of-a-bitch with more issues than she could count. Damn it, he just wasn't worth her time or her love.

She looked at her watch. In about an hour Cassie should be coming home and TC should still be at work about then. It would be a perfect time to pick up the things she left behind at his place.

She shook her head, she should've known he wasn't ready for a real relationship when in their several months long relationship he had never bothered to give her a key.

"Michelle, hi." Cassie opened the door and looked to the ground once she saw who it was.

"Hey… I know this is awkward. I just need to get some stuff I left here." Michelle explained.

"Yeah, okay." Cassie opened the door further and stepped back to let her father's ex in.

"Just so you know, your secret is still safe with me. I know I said some pretty awful things to you back in the day but truth is: you're a nice kid."

This would not be a good time to tell the other woman that TC was away with another woman at the moment, Cassie surmised. "Ah, thanks. As far as my dad's girlfriends go, you're one of the better ones."

Michelle smiled at the girl and went directly to the bedroom to retrieve her belongings.

Cassie felt like hitting her father at that moment. True, Michelle was a childish, superficial woman but it sucked to get dumped over the phone and it completely sucked if the guy was dating someone else just a few days later.

Her dad hadn't come out and told her he was going out on a date, but she could read the signs by now. He had been fidgety about his clothes, given her a lame excuse about probably not being home when she got there and kept on glancing at the clock.

He only behaved like that for important dates- around women he really liked who weren't with him yet or when it was around dump-time.

Cassie thought it had some poetic justice to it, that if he brought his new flame home his old one would be waiting there for him and he'd probable lose the both of them.

She loved her father, but he was such a _man_ sometimes.

"Michelle, I'm going out, take your time, okay?" Cassie sweetly informed the woman.

"Say hi to your beau for me." Michelle indulgently smiled.

Sam warily watched as her brother practically danced around his room, he was getting ready to sneak out again and though his precautions were in place he felt the need to flutter about muttering his emergency protocols to himself.

He had meticulously planned this, he really wasn't going to get caught.

"Don't forget to tell Cass you aren't coming next time." Sam reminded him, more to alert him to her presence than anything else.

"Of course I'm going to meet her next time!" He exclaimed as he stopped walking around and focused all his attention on his sister.

"Mom is throwing that garden party, remember? According to the wives club the new residents need to throw a little soiree to get acquainted in the neighbourhood… Any of this ring a bell?"

"Is that this week?" Tom asked, keeping his eye on the clock- he had to move the second the clock his five past.

"Yes. And don't forget your phone." Sam handed him the device.

"That can be traced." Tom refused to take it.

"That would be the whole point. Look, if you get in trouble you need the alarm on there. Please Tom, I'm really worried."

With a sigh he snatched the device out of her hand. "No need, Sammy. I have taken care of everything."

"Pride cometh before the fall, Tom," Sam muttered.

"Oh! And the time you got taken hostage in the firehouse! I've told some of the newbies about that and they just don't believe me!" TC laughed at their various improbable adventures.

"What I still can't believe is that you didn't take pictures of Cory dressed as a chicken! I would've paid good money to see that." Chris grinned.

"yeah well… We had some other things on our minds." His smile disappeared from his face as he looked at her "I was so scared for you that day."

"Well you had it coming, I can't tell you how often I was sure you'd be dead next time I'd see you," she scoffed, trying not to acknowledge the deeper meaning behind his words. Sure he had loved her then, but that was a long time ago.

He took a breath and was about to reply with a grave and deep answer when she gently elbowed him in the ribs, her smile soft and understanding "We were all a little risky back in the day, we probably could've lived of the adrenaline."

"Easy for you to say, I practically _am_ living of it. It's harder than it looks like for a man my age to stay in shape," TC complained.

Chris grinned "Still haven't managed to outlaw the bike shorts?"

"We haven't been broken up a week and you're already moving on to the next one?"

They had been so caught up in their conversation that they hadn't noticed they were nearing his house, and they certainly hadn't noticed Michelle coming out of it, looking mightily disgruntled.

"You're the lady from the hotel! The one whose son is banging Cassie! Are you telling me you couldn't even wait to dump me before moving on? You're a pig, TC." Michelle yelled and threw some more profanities at them.

"Michelle," TC was remarkably calm considering the woman was drawing things like his likely origin and his masculinity in question "first of all, Chris and I aren't dating. I have never cheated on you. Secondly, what are you doing in my house?"

He had stepped in front of Chris, as if he needed to bodily protect her from the barrage of profanities coming their way.

"I am so sick of you, TC. You aren't a man you're some extremely gross fungus. I had never taken you for a liar, it's just sad to see how you can pretend to be one thing and turn out to be the polar opposite. I didn't come here to try and get you back if that's what you're worried about. I needed to get my stuff and thought you'd be at work. You disgust me, TC."

"Think what you will Michelle, I never meant to hurt you and I never lied to you. But if it makes you feel better, think of me as you will," he shrugged.

His calm seemed to irritate her even further, bristling with anger she dropped the box she had been carrying in the passenger seat of her car before walking around, now apparently ignoring him.

She opened the door but paused before she got in. "You know you can't treat people like this, TC. It'll come back to bite you in the ass, mark my words, what goes around comes around."

Before he could think of an appropriate answer she had driven off.

TC turned back to Chris, who was bury pretending she hadn't just witnessed a verbal massacre of his character.

"Sorry 'bout that," he said sincerely.

"The girl has some vocabulary," Chris said.

"Uhm… Do you want to come in?" He asked.

"No, I should get back before they report me missing." She answered.

"Oh uh, right." An awkward hug followed their good-byes and then she was off, both feeling an odd mixture of pleasure and pain at their separation.

"I should've known." Chris shook her head at the sight before her. She put two fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly. Two heads shot apart and frantically looked around.

"Consider yourselves busted." Chris said as she approached them.

Cassie and Tom couldn't have looked more guilty if they tried.

"Ma, I can explain," Tom was quick to say.

"Reeaally?" Chris drawled, looking severely unimpressed so far.

"Cassie uhm… She wanted to introduce me to her mother." It was the first thing he came up with and he immediately wish he had just kept quiet.

"Right, you needed to sneak out without informing me to suck face with your girlfriend in front of Cory's grave. That explains everything, how could I have been so silly." Chris dryly said, consciously keeping out his neglecting to bring guards with him because it would look suspicious in front of the girl.

"I knew you would never let me go, and this was really important." Tom took hold of Cassie's hand like it would prove just how important this was.

"Just stop Tom. You lied to me, making up more lies isn't going to make it better." Chris looked heartbreakingly disappointed.

"I…" he started to protest, but changed his mind "I'm sorry mom." He suddenly became very interested in the ground, staring at nothing else.

"Wait for me by the car," she said, "both of you." She added when the two didn't seem to be able to decide for themselves.

Only now did Cassie spot the daisies in Chris's hand and she wanted to hit herself. She had known Chris visited this place from time to time!

She let herself get dragged away from the 'crime scene' by Tom but couldn't stop herself from aggressively kicking the first head stone they came across.

"It's all my fault!" She whispered when they were out of hearing range.

"Assigning blame can wait. We need to come up with a game plan." Years of training kicked in, panic was no good in a crisis situation, you needed a level head.

"She'll never let us see each other again!" Cassie practically cried, feeling much the same anguish as she imagined Juliet must have felt, as she was forbidden to love Romeo.

"We'll work around it." He assured her, sounding more confident than he actually felt.

"We- we should elope, run away together." The Shakespearian tragedy had gone right to her head.

"Cassie." He took her head in his hands tenderly and smiled reassuringly at her "you're overreacting. Just come here again next time and I'll be here, no matter what it takes. Just relax."

Due to the recently discovered outbreak of teenage rebellion Chris had to keep her conversation with Cory extremely short (Hey, I'm knee deep in ape-shit right now, so I'll have to talk to you later.) before going after the ingrates.

She dropped Cassie off at home and told TC what had been going on. In stead of going berserk like last time he went positively frigid. He thanked Chris politely but didn't say a word to his daughter as she miserably walked into the house.

Back in the car Chris sighed "You should've come to me, Tom. We could've worked something out."

But Tom didn't reply and the whole trip back was spent in silence.

Michelle sank down onto the couch. "I am having the crappiest week ever," she informed her friend and colleague Peter.

"First I get dumped, I mean, that sucks but I'll get over it. So I figured, hey I'll just grab my stuff from his place and I'll never have to see the asshole again. I didn't count on him dating the whore from hell! I caught them at the end of a date." Michelle was still fuming with anger and needed to get it all out.

"Uhm, who is the uhm… whore from hell?" Peter asked, trying to put it delicately and failing miserably.

"This super secret FBI chick. You know a few months ago when I was on vacation with TC? Well…" And she proceeded to tell the whole story.

She wasn't aware of Peter's current financial crisis, or of the monetary value of the secret she was now disclosing to her friend…


	9. The End

AN: Seven years after starting this one, it is now complete :O I had a lot more written but I cut huge chunks out because this chapter is basically all action and I hate it when the action is interrupted too much. Let me know what you think! Even if it is just to tell me I should've gotten this up a lot sooner ;)

"Don't go," Sam grabbed her brother's arm as she caught him swinging his leg over the balcony.

"I have to go Sam, I promised," Tom said, trying to shake his sister's hand off.

"Mom will find out, we'll drop this cover and head for the hills. Then you'll never see your girlfriend again," Sam said.

"Look mom is busy with the whole party thing, she might not notice… I don't know Sam, I just _have _to go see her, she'll worry if I don't show up," Tom said.

"I'll worry if you go. I have a bad feeling about this," Sam said quietly. "Please."

"God Sam, just let go, just let me go! I've spent my whole life in this train wreck of protection because you just couldn't keep your mouth shut! You owe me this." Tom said, his sister had scared him and he reacted by hurting her. It worked.

Sam withdrew her hand as if she had been stung. "Then go."

He looked at his sister, wishing he could take it back, wishing he could make their lives fair. But he couldn't so he climbed the balcony, leaving his sister all alone.

OOOOOOO

"You made it!" Cassie threw her arms around him.

"Yeah, a little worse for wear, I had to climb some fences…" Tom said.

That brought reality crashing back real fast. "Oh Tom, what are we going to do? Can you even go back? Should we run away together?" Cassie asked, some part of her still clinging to some romantic notion of adventure.

Tom sank down next to Cory's headstone, "Come here Cass," he opened his arms to her and she settled between them. "I have to go back, I owe it to mom and Sam… And I wouldn't want you to live a life on the run, I can tell you, it's no fun at all."

"But… But what if we can't see each other anymore?" Cassie asked.

"Then this is goodbye."

OOOOOOO

"He's gone," Sam said, joining her mother in the kitchen, about an hour after her brother had sneaked out.

"What do you mean?" Chris asked, knowing the answer even as she asked the question.

"He sneaked out again," Sam said, not meeting her mother's eyes.

"I should've seen this coming…" Chris said, shaking her head.

"You trusted him, even after he sneaked out, you still trusted him," Sam said, angry at her mother even though she could not really say why.

Chris didn't respond, just went to the intercom and broadcasted across the entire house. "Epsilon."

"Bubba will take care of you, I'll go fetch your wayward brother," Chris said, giving her daughter a quick hug.

OOOOOOO

Tom saw four men entering the graveyard down below. Their suits were well tailored… They'd have to be to conceal the holsters he had no doubt they were carrying.

"Cass, give me your phone, run to the back to the graveyard and hide," Tom said, his tones clipped and tense.

"What?" Cassie looked confused.

"Now Cass! Those guys mean business. Give me your phone and hide," Tom said, never taking his eyes off of the guys walking up the slope. They had seen them and were heading directly towards Tom and Cassie.

"But…" Cassie said, even as she fumbled in her bag for her phone. "What about you?"

"I'll take care of me, you take care of you," he snatched the phone out of her hand and gave her a gentle shove down the other side of the hill.

He dialled the number he had memorised since he was just five years old.

"Tom?" His mother asked.

"I've got four hostiles and no way out that won't get me killed. I am going to surrender. I have no tracking device on me," Tom hurried his words as the goons were nearly on him.

"I'm coming for you," Chris said, hitting the gas and hitting her own alarm button so the guys at the house would know to get Sam to safety and another team would assemble to help her get Tom out.

"I love you mom," were the last words out of Tom's mouth before the phone was ripped away from him.

OOOOOOO

Chris didn't allow herself a single moment of weakness. She dialled Bubba as soon as the connection with Tom had cut out.

"Tom's taken, I'm going to get him out. They'll be coming after Sam, keep her safe," Chris informed him. "Have they scrambled the teams?"

"Affirmative, your team's ETA is 20 minutes. I promise to keep our girl safe, Bubba out."

Chris crashed her SUV through the graveyard gates.

OOOOOOO

Sam heard the alarm and before she had time to think about what that meant she was swarmed by the undercover agents and hustled into one of the three armoured cars that pulled up. "Is Tom alright?" she asked as Bubba pulled a flack vest over her head.

"Chris's got him," he said.

OOOOOOO

"Well this can't be right..." One of the phone operators said as she finished a call.

"What?" TC asked, just passing by.

"Reports are coming in about a car in a graveyard and shots fired... What is this world coming to? A graveyard!" The operator said.

TC immediately had a bad feeling about this. "Any reports on who's involved?"

"None sir," the operator said.

"Tell all available units to meet me there."

OOOOOOO

They were stacked into a tiny cottage, Sam felt like pacing her nerves were shot. But there was no room to pace with the twelve agents in there with her. A thirteenth was just coming back in, putting his phone back into his pocket.

"They recommend baby duck," the young man said.

Bubba nodded, baby duck was the code name for a diversionary tactic, three female agents dressed up like Sam would exit the house, each guarded by a contingent of agents while Sam would stay in the house with just two agents. It was a good plan right now when the number of guns didn't matter but mobility was key.

"I'll stay with her," Bubba said, to Sam's relief. It'd be good to have one familiar face around her at least.

"No, they know you, they know you'd never leave the girl," the young man said. "Johnson and I will stay."

Bubba hesitated for a moment. He knew the other agent was right, but all his instincts were screaming at him to stay with Sam. Finally he nodded again. "OK."

It didn't take long for the teams to move out. Leaving Sam all alone with the two unfamiliar agents.

"Stay down kid, we want whoever is still watching this place to think it's abandoned. We'll go out through the basement when we get the all-clear from mission Ops. And don't worry, Roland and I will take good care of you," Johnson said.

And then Roland shot Johnson in the face.

OOOOOOO

Chris had shot two of them before they even got their guns out. She didn't bother to look for her son, she had trained him well enough to know when to get down. The two other goons had taken cover behind some headstones and were shooting at her.

Good, let them spend their bullets here, she thought. At least they're not shooting at Tom. She drove the mangled car up the hill as fast as it would go, keeping the men who held her son distracted so he could creep away to some cover while she tried to hit them with her gun or car, either would do.

OOOOOOO

Cassie had been trying to move to the gate as stealthily as she could when the car came flying through and started spewing bullets. She cowered behind some bushes, hoping her dad would come save her. The body of one of the dead men was rolling down the hill, slowly at first, faster as it gained momentum.

She figured he still had to be armed...

OOOOOOO

Sam screamed and dove forward. Roland had expected her to cower or hide or at least be in shock, so for a moment he was overpowered and she wrenched the gun from his hand and tossed it across the room.

Roland managed to her arm in a lock but she kicked at his kneecap. He screamed and pushed her off, cursing himself for forgetting she was a trained martial artist. He dove towards his gun and managed to point it and pull the trigger just as the girl was jumping him again.

OOOOOOO

Cassie watched in horror as Chris drove over a headstone and the man hiding behind it. She didn't even slow down! But then the last of the four men who had come for Tom grabbed the boy by the hair and dragged him upright, holding a gun to his temple.

Chris abruptly stopped and got out of the car, almost absentmindedly putting a bullet into the mostly dead guy who was still hanging on the back of her car.

"Just give it up," Chris said.

"Screw that!" And aimed the gun at Chris, shooting her just a moment later. Tom took advantage of this distraction. He planted his elbow into the guys ribcage and dove behind Cory's headstone for cover.

Cassie shot, she was crying as she did it but she shot. Her father appeared out of nowhere and actually hit the guy.

OOOOOOO

His aim was too low, he hit her in the hip. The blow of Sam landing on him jarred the gun from his hand again. Her hands went for his neck and started squeezing. He tried to dislodge her, he tried to claw her hands from his throat, he tried to plead. And then he died.

OOOOOOO

In a hospital, in a cleared and thoroughly secured wing, TC, Tom and Cassie waited to hear about Chris and Sam.

OOOOOOO

In a hospital, in a cleared and thoroughly secured wing, Sam and Chris where wheeled out of surgery. They were immediately rolled to the back exit and loaded into ambulances.

Bubba, still covered in Sam's blood from when he carried her out of the supposedly safe house, put his hand on Tom's shoulder. "It's time."

Tom looked at Cassie and didn't know what to say. He had risked everything for her and his sister and mother had paid the price, but so had Cassie.

"Tell your mother that she can take as long as she needs, she'll always have a friend in me," TC said.

Tom nodded at him, then gave Cassie a nod and then he walked away.

TC put his arm around his crying daughter.

The End

No really, that's always been how I planned the end, they just disappear again. Anyway, please review.


End file.
